Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War ‘Western Front’ M.C. group of twelve awarded to Brigadier R. B. Leslie, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, late Lincolnshire Regiment, who, having risen to senior rank in the Second World War was faced with the Japanese invasion of Burma and was responsible for the evacuation of Rangoon in March 1942, for which services he was Mentioned in Despatches for a third time.

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914 Star, with clasp (Lieut: R. B. Leslie. Linc: R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. R. B. Leslie); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; France, Third Republic, Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, silver-gilt, and enamel; Croix de Guerre, reverse dated 1914-18, bronze, enamel damage to the Legion of Honour otherwise good very fine (12) £1,800-£2,200

Provenance: Spink, December 1990 (when sold without the Croix de Guerre).

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1916.

M.I.D. London Gazettes 30 April 1916, 7 April 1918, and 28 October 1942.

French Legion of Honour, Chevalier London Gazette 24 February 1916

Robert Barton Leslie was born at Cork on 7 October 1891, the second son of Robert Henry Leslie, Esq. Educated at Dover College and the royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Regiment on 14 February 1912. He served with the 2nd Battalion in Gibraltar and Bermuda before joining the British Expeditionary Force in November 1914. He was awarded the Legion of Honour in respect of his gallantry at the Action of Bois Grenier, 25 September 1915:
‘Lieutenant Leslie, collecting a party, and with bomb and bayonet, attacked along the German trench, fighting his way from traverse to traverse, in a most gallant and determined fashion, till touch was gained with the Berkshire. He was awarded the Legion of Honour.’ (The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment 1914-1918, by Major-General C. R. Simpson, C.B. refers.)

In October 1915, Leslie was appointed Adjutant and the following year on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Leslie emerged, with some good fortune, unscathed from the 2nd Battalion’s attack at Ovilliers led by their commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Bastard, D.S.O. Bastard’s own account of these events is documented with some alacrity in the Regimental History and includes the following detail:
‘We went into the trenches with twenty-two officers, all of whom were killed or wounded, except Leslie and myself, and we had bullet holes through our clothing.’ (ibid)

In September 1916, Leslie left the Regiment for service on the Staff as G.S.O.3. and subsequently Brigade Major. During the Great War, in addition to the Legion of Honour, he was awarded the Military Cross, and twice mentioned in despatches.

In May 1919 he re-joined the 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment for a second term as Adjutant embarking with them in India in September. At Poona on 23rd February 1920 he married Violet Sylvia, daughter of John Henry Lace, C.I.E., Indian Forest Service. Subsequently he again served on the Staff as Brigade Major and Staff Captain before coming home in February 1926 to join the 1st Battalion. From September 1927- September 1931 he was Adjutant of London University O.T.C. before re-joining the 2nd Battalion and being promoted Major in April 1932. The following year, while commanding the Machine Gun Company he and his three subalterns won the Army Golf Cup for the Regiment.

In February 1935, while on his way to join the 1st Battalion in Hong Kong he was appointed Commandant Ceylon Defence Force, with the local rank of Lieutenant Colonel. On 23 September 1937 he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and on 15 November disembarked at Singapore to take over command of the 1st Battalion. During his command, on 25th August 1938 new colours were presented. Two months later the battalion moved to India, to be stationed at Wellington. On 23 September 1940 he was promoted Colonel and subsequently appointed Commander Rangoon Area as an acting Brigadier, becoming temporary Brigadier on 29 April 1941.

In the face of the Japanese invasion he was responsible for the evacuation of Rangoon, 8 March 1942, under General Harold Alexander, Commander-in-Chief of Allied Land Forces in Burma. He was once more mentioned in despatches.
Afterwards he was employed by A.A.C. G.H.Q. India before returning to England in May 1943. He finished his career as D.D.R.D. War Office before returning to Budleigh Salterton, Devon, in August 1943. He retired with rank of Brigadier in August 1946 and died at Exeter in 1976.

Sold with the following:
The recipient’s two original Great War M.I.D. documents and a copy of the recipient’s Second World War M.I.D. document; two photographs of the recipient in uniform dating from the Great War and Second World War eras respectively; a copy of a page of the Singapore Free Press dated 26 August 1938 with photographs of and mentioning Leslie on the occasion of the presentation of new colours to the regiment; an obituary article from a regimental magazine; a copy of the Leslie family tree dating back to the 12th Century; and a copy of the recipient’s commission document.