Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Engineer Sub Lieutenant C. S. Powell, Royal Naval Reserve and Mercantile Marine

British War and Victory Medals (Eng. S. Lt. C. S. Powell R.N.R.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Charles S. Powell); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; St. John Service Medal (3761 C. S. Powell Rhodesian Rly. S. Africa S.J.A.B.D. 1943) good very fine (6) £180-220

Charles Samuel Powell was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on 20 May 1890 and after emigrating to Africa joined the Rhodesian Railways as an apprentice fitter in April 1907. In 1914 he was appointed to the staff of the Chief Mechanical Engineer as a draftsman, and on the outbreak of the Great War attempted to join the forces in Rhodesia but was turned down on medical grounds. In June 1915 he proceed overseas and joined the Mercantile Marine as an engineer on a troopship, and was subsequently commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve on 26 October 1917. He returned to the Rhodesia Railways in 1920, and was appointed senior draftsman in the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Department.

In 1924 Powell was appointed Works Manager of the Railway Workshops at Umtali, and three years later was appointed Assistant Mechanical Superintendent of Transportation at Salisbury. In 1934 he became the District Superintendent at Broken Hill, and transferred to Salisbury in that post in 1938, where he died in 1945. ‘Known throughout the Northern and Southern Rhodesia railway systems, he had, by his personality and energy, helped to build up the various St. John Ambulance branches with which he was associated. In recognition of these services he was awarded the St. John Ambulance Brigade Priory Vote of Thanks, and was also the holder of the St. John Ambulance Brigade Long Service Medal, the Jubilee Medal, and the Coronation Medal.’ (recipient’s obituary, Rhodesia Herald, 29 August 1945 refers).

Sold with a copy photograph of Railway Staff at Umtali in 1914, and various other research.