Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.S.O., M.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. R. Prior, Devonshire Regiment

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar; Military Cross, G.V.R., with copy Second Award Bar; 1914 Star, with copy clasp (Lieut. G. E. R. Prior. Devon: R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. G. E. R. Prior.) good very fine (5) £2400-2800

Provenance: Christie’s, November 1990.

D.S.O. London Gazette 15 February 1919; citation London Gazette 30 July 1919:
‘For gallant and resourceful leadership of his battalion. In particular during the successful attacks at Arleux on 26-27th September, 1918, against Fresnes on October 7th, and against the Drocourt-Queant Line on October 11th, he made several valuable reconnaissances under heavy fire, and materially facilitated the early and rapid successes gained by the brigade. He rendered very valuable service.’

M.C. London Gazette 23 June 1915.

M.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 16 September 1918:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in carrying important operation orders to battalion commanders through intense enemy barrage and machine-gun fire. Had these orders not been delivered, the safety of two brigades would have been seriously imperilled.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 22 June 1915; 20 May 1918; 8 July 1919.

George Edward Redvers Prior was born at Barton Regis, Clifton, on 2 December 1885, the son of Major-General J. E. H. Prior. He was educated at Eton and joined the 2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, in 1906, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1909.

At the outbreak of the Great War, Prior was serving with the 1st Battalion which disembarked from S.S. Reindeer in France at Havre on 21 August 1914, to join the 8th Brigade in General Hubert Hamilton’s 3rd Division. Prior at this time was in “C” Company and saw action on the Aisne at Le Cateau. He took command of the company a little later and they suffered heavy pressure on the Givenchy-Festubert front on 14 October, when the retreating French exposed their flank to heavy fire. The battalion then moved to the Ypres Salient where on 21 April, during the defence of Hill 60, Prior was wounded and later awarded the M.C. Then came a move to the Somme where a Divisional School of Instruction was set up in January and February 1916, after which Prior left the battalion to serve as one of its instructors. He was again back with the Devons, this time the 2nd Battalion, when on 17 June he took command of the remnants of the battalion after their heroic action at Bois de Butts, which earned the battalion the French Croix de Guerre, the riband of which is still worn today by the Battalion’s successor unit, the 1st Rifles.

It was during the final months of the war that Prior, now a Lieutenant-Colonel, won a bar to his M.C. and the D.S.O. He had been wounded three times during the war and remained with the 2nd Battalion until early in 1919, when he was detailed to join the 51st Young Soldiers Battalion in the Army of Occupation. This battalion was reduced to a cadre and they returned to England in April 1919.

Prior took command of the 2nd Battalion in June 1931, a position he held until August 1933, when he retired. He married in 1933, Lorna Marsali Forbes-Leigh, daughter of Sir Charles and Lady Forbes-Leigh. They lived at Fishleigh House, Hatherleigh, North Devon, also owning a house at Dunachton, Inverness, both areas in which Prior could indulge his favourite pastimes of golf, shooting and fishing. He died on 12 June 1956