Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The fine K.C.B., Sudan, Boer War and Great War group awarded to Major-General Sir E. G. T. Bainbridge, East Kent Regiment, who served with the Egyptian Army and in river gunboats during the reconquest, and went on to command the 7th Mounted Infantry during the Boer War, and the 25th Division on the Western Front

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s neck badge and breast star, silver, silver-gilt, gold and enamels; Queen’s Sudan 1896-98 (Bimb: E. G. T. Bainbridge, E.A.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (Lt: Col: E. G. T. Bainbridge, E/ Kent Rgt.); 1914-15 Star (Brig. Gen. E. G. T. Bainbridge, C.B.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Maj. Gen. Sir E. G. T. Bainbridge); Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge, gold and enamels, minor chips to green enamel wreaths; French Croix de Guerre 1914-1918, with bronze palm; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 3 clasps, Hafir, Sudan 1897, Khartoum (Lieut. Bainbridge, The Buffs & Bimb. E.A.); Legion of Honour, 3rd Class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Order of the Medjidie, 3rd Class neck badge, silver, gold and enamel, generally good very fine or better (12) £5000-6000

C.B. (Military) London Gazette 3 June 1913.

K.C.B. (Military) London Gazette 1 January 1918.

Commander Legion of Honour London Gazette 19 November 1918 (Officer 1917).

Order of the Medjidie, 3rd Class London Gazette 12 June 1903.

Croix de Guerre with Palm London Gazette 21 August 1919.

M.I.D. London Gazette 3 November 1896 (Dongola); 25 January 1897 (Abu Hamed); 30 September 1898 (Omdurman); 9 December 1898 (Pursuit of the Khalifa); 8 February and 16 April, 1901 (South Africa); 15 June 1916; 4 January and 11 December, 1917; and 20 December 1918.

Edmond Guy Tulloch Bainbridge was born on 11 November 1867, eldest son of late Colonel Sir Edmond Bainbridge, K.C.B., R.A. He was educated at Marlborough College and Sandhurst, and commissioned into the Buffs (E. Kent R.) in 1888; Captain 1897; Brevet Major 1898; Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel 1901; Major 1905; Brevet Colonel 1905; Colonel 1912; Major-General 1917. He was attached to the Egyptian Army from March 1896 to November 1898, and served in the Dongola expedition of 1896, with the 1st Battalion, Egyptian Army. During the Nile Expedition of 1897, he was detached for service with the gunboats and supervised their safe passage over the Fourth Cataract in August 1897. He next served in the Nile Expedition of 1898, and during the first phase was employed on the lines of communication at Geneinetti with half of 5th Egyptian Battalion, and consequently missed the battle of the Atbara. He was subsequently present at the battle of Khartoum.

During the South African War, 1899-1901, he was attached to the staff as D.A.A.G., but when Lord Roberts re-organised the mounted troops he was given command of the 7th Mounted Infantry Battalion and graded A.A.G. He saw plenty of fighting, including the operations in Orange Free State, and at Paardeberg, and the actions at Poplar Grove, Houtnek, the Vet and Zand Rivers. In May and June 1900 He took part in the operations in the Transvaal, including actions near Johannesburg and Diamond Hill. His command was then moved to the Orange Free State to join in the Guerrilla war with the Boer Commandos. He was present at the Wittebergen operations which resulted in the surrender of Prinsloo at the end of July, and at the relief of Ladybrand in September. He acquired the reputation of a capable commander of mounted infantry in the field, and was given his brevet Lieutenant-Colonelcy in November 1900. In February 1901, he elected to return to the Egyptian Army, and commanded Khartoum Military District, holding the rank of Kaimakam, during the period 1901-03.

On returning home in 1903, he took over command of the School of Mounted Infantry at Kilworth, Ireland. In 1905 he returned to his regiment to command a company as a much bemedalled brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1910 he was appointed General Staff Officer 2, Northumbrian Division (Territorial Force) and was finished with regimental duty. In March 1912 he was promoted to substantive Colonel, and moved to G.S.O.1, Western Command. At the outbreak of the Great War he was appointed Brigadier-General, General Staff, First Army, Central Force.

In April 1915, however, he received the command of the 110th (Leicester) Infantry Brigade, 37th Division of the New Armies, which brigade he took out to France at the end of July. In June 1916 he was given the 25th Infantry Division, being promoted to Major-General the following January, and commanded it during the battles of the Somme, at Messines, and at Pilkem Ridge (Third Ypres) in 1917; and throughout the German offensives on the Somme and on the Lys in 1918. It was the fate of the 25th Division to be included in the IXth Corps, which was overwhelmed in the German attack along the Aisne in May 1918. Bainbridge’s brigades were sent up into the battle piecemeal from corps reserve, and he was left with no fighting troops under his command. When the 25th Division was reconstituted he came home to take over the duties of an Inspector of Infantry, an appointment which he held for six months, from August 1918 until January 1919. After commanding the troops at Shoreham he was given the 2nd Division at Aldershot, in June 1919, retiring from the army at the expiration of his command in 1923.

Sir Guy Bainbridge died on 27 September 1943, aged 76, at Leigh, Newtown, Newbury. His funeral was held in Newtown Parish Church, Newbury, on 1 October, and apart from family members the more prominent mourners included Generals Sir William Thwaites, Sir Alexander Godley, the Hon. Sir Richard Stuart-Wortley, and many other senior military officers. Sold with various original photographs, four original M.I.D. certificates for the Great War period and additional research including a modern reprint of The 25th Division in France and Flanders, by Kincaid-Smith, 429pp.