Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The British War Medal awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel H. K. Groff, O.B.E., Canadian Army Medical Corps

British War Medal 1914-20 (Capt. H. K. Groff), nearly extremely fine (2) £40-60

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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Harry Karl Groff was born in Berlin, Ontario, on 11 September 1889. A Medical Student, he enlisted in the C.A.M.C. in January 1915, was promoted to Provisional Lieutenant that March, and embarked for England shortly thereafter, where he was seconded to the R.A.M.C. Re-embarked for Gallipoli, he served in that theatre of war from August 1915 until January 1916, and was promoted Captain. Next assigned to No. 1 Stationary Hospital in May 1916, and then to the C.A.M.C. Training School in September 1916, he afterwards served at No. 4 General Hospital in Salonika and, later still, at the Canadian Military Hospital at Basingstoke, England. Having then been attached to the R.A.F. in April-May 1919, he was demobilised back in Canada that summer.

Groff then went on to serve with the 21st (Cavalry) Field Ambulance in 1921, and in the 19th Alberta Dragoons, and was awarded the Volunteer Decoration as a Major in 1929. Listed as a Lieutenant-Colonel with the 33rd Field Ambulance in 1934, he served during the the 1939-45 War with ‘25 Force’, November 1940-August 1941, and was awarded the O.B.E. Groff died at Edmonton in August 1946; sold with copied service papers.