Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Lieutenant H. R. Burnham, 3rd Light Armoured Car Battery, Machine Gun Corps, late Legionnaire 2nd Class, 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment, French Foreign Legion

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. H. R. Burnham.); France, Third Republic, War Commemorative Medal 1914-18; France, Victory Medal 1914-19; France, Croix du Combatant Voluntaire 1914-18, mounted as originally worn, generally very or better (5) £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Julian Johnson Collection.

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Herbert Burnham Russell was born in April 1885, and moved to Sevres-et-Seine, France, to pursue a career as an artist. He joined the 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment, French Foreign Legion, with the outbreak of the Great War, and served as a Legionairre 2nd Class, 24 August 1914 - 1 February 1915. He was commissioned Temporary Second Lieutenant, 14th (Reserve) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, in March 1915. He transferred to the Machine Gun Corps in December of the same year, and served with the 3rd Light Armoured Car Battery fighting against the Senussi in the Egyptian theatre of war.

Russell advanced to Temporary Lieutenant in October 1916, before relinquishing his commission in May 1920. In later life he resided at 27 Camden Square, London.

Sold with the bestowal documents for the War Commemorative Medal and the Allied Victory Medal, named to the recipient as a member of the 1er Régiment étranger (the oldest and most senior regiment of the French Foreign Legion), both dated 30 October 1937.