Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War O.B.E., M.C. group of seven awarded to Brigadier R. M. Airey, Royal Army Service Corps

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1918; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Major. R. M. Airey. A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Major R. M. Airey.); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, generally good very fine (7) £600-£800

O.B.E. London Gazette 22 March 1919:
‘For valuable services rendered in connection with the War.’

M.C. London Gazette 4 June 1917:
‘For distinguished service in the Field.’

Rowland Montagu Airey was born on 7 January 1884, the son of Major Airey, 24th Foot, and was educated at St. Paul’s School, London, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps on 6 May 1905, he was promoted Lieutenant on 6 May 1907, and Captain on 5 August 1914. He served on the Staff during the Great War on the Western Front from 30 July 1915, as D.A.A.M.G., 37th Division, with the rank of temporary Major, and in addition to being awarded the Military Cross was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 15 June 1916). Promoted substantive Major on 26 October 1918, for his services during the Great War he was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Airey subsequently served as Deputy Assistant Director of Supplies and Transport, British Army of the Rhine, and then as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Guernsey and Alderney District, Channel Islands, from 9 April 1925. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 8 May 1931, and Colonel on 8 May 1935, and latterly held the appointment of Assistant Director of Supplies and Transport, Malta, from 21 February 1936. His final posting was as commandant of the Royal Army Service Corps’s Militia Training Battalion, in which capacity he welcomed the Colonel in Chief, Field Marshal H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, to Boyce Barracks, Crookham, in September 1939.

Sold with copied research, and a photographic image of the recipient with Field Marshal H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught.