Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An Order of St. John group of six awarded to Captain R. H. Hadfield, Royal Army Medical Corps

The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Serving Brother’s breast badge, silver and enamel; British War and Victory Medals (Capt. R. H. Hadfield.); Defence Medal; St. John Service Medal, with 3 Additional Award Bars (10201 D. Sgn. R. H. Hadfield. Pendeen Div. No. 9 Dis. S.J.A.B. 1931.); Egypt, Kingdom, Order of the Nile, Fourth Class breast badge, by Lattes, Cairo, silver and enamel, maker’s name on reverse, with rosette on riband, mounted court-style as worn, very fine (6) £300-400

Order of the Nile, 4th Class London Gazette 26 November 1919.

Rowland Hurst Hadfield was born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1881, and was educated at Victoria University, Manchester, where he was awarded the Medal in Obstetrics, and the University of London. He served during the Great War with the Royal Army Medical Corps, first on H.M. Medical Ship Warilda with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from August 1916, and then with 35th Medical Auxiliary Corps. For his services during the Great War he was awarded the Egyptian Order of the Nile, before transferring to the Territorial Army, where he was attached as Medical Officer to the 51st Medium Brigade, Royal Artillery. A Life Member of the St. John Ambulance Association, he served as Medical Officer in charge of the Auxiliary Military Hospital, Moor Park, Preston, and Senior House Surgeon at the Preston and County of Lancaster Royal Infirmary, before moving to Cornwall where he served as District Medical Officer in Penzance, as well as Police Surgeon for the Cornwall Constabulary. Appointed a Serving Brother of the Order of St. John in the 1930s, he died in 1951.