Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War C.B.E. group of four awarded to Engineer Rear-Admiral W. Parsons, Royal Navy

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with Civil Division neck riband; 1914-15 Star (Eng. Commr. W. R. Parsons. R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Eng. Capt. W. R. Parsons. R.N.) mounted as worn, very fine or better (4) £300-£400

C.B.E. London Gazette 7 June 1918.

William Roskilly Parsons ‘was born in 1865, the son of the Reverend W. Parsons. He was educated privately, at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Devonport, and at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. From 1891 to 1894 he served in H.M.S. Boomerang, with the Australian Fleet, and 10 years later was specially promoted to Engineer Commander, after serving with the Admiralty Boiler Committee in the Medea. During the 1914-18 War he was again specially promoted to Engineer Captain for his service on the Dover Patrol, and in 1920, after duty as the head of the Submarine Mining Inspection Department at the Admiralty, he retired with the rank of Engineer Rear Admiral. He died on 16 July 1954’ (The recipient’s obituary, published in The Times, 20 July 1954 refers).

Sold with the recipient’s Bestowal Document for the C.B.E.; and copied research.