Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Blewitt, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Egyptian Army and Chinese Labour Corps, who was mortally wounded in France in September 1917

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, N.E. Frontier 1891 (Lieutt. A. Blewitt 4th Bn. K.R. Rif. C.); Queen’s Sudan 1896-98 (Bimbashi Blewitt 3/Bn. E.A.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col. A. Blewitt.); Ottoman Empire, Order of Mejidieh, Third Class neck badge, silver, gold and enamel; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 5 clasps, Sudan 1897, Abu Hamed, The Atbara, Khartoum, Sudan 1899 (El Kaim Blewitt Bey. E.A.) clasps mounted in order as listed, nearly extremely fine (6) £3,600-£4,400

Order of Medjidieh London Gazette 11 March 1902.
M.I.D. London Gazette 25 January 1898: ‘3rd Battalion Egyptian Army.’
M.I.D. London Gazette 24 May and 30 Sept. 1898: ‘brevet Major.’

Arthur Blewitt was born at Pinner, Middlesex, on 19 February 1861. He was educated at Eton and was gazetted to his first commission in the West Yorkshire Militia in 1881 and transferred to the 4th Battalion 60th Rifles later, in 1883 at Ferozepore, India. He served in India and Burma until 1893, having in 1891 taken part in the Manipur Expedition.
In 1897 Blewitt was selected for service with the Egyptian Army, and took part in the Nile Expedition of 1897, being present at the action of Abu Hamed (mentioned in despatches), also the Nile Expedition of 1898 and was present at the battle of Atbara and capture of Khartoum (twice mentioned in despatches). He again served in the Nile Expedition of 1899, when he received the third class Order of the Medjidieh.
He was selected by Lord Kitchener as Governor of Fashoda 1900-02 and Gezira 1902 - a post he held with much success until 1903, when he re-joined his regiment at Malta and retired in 1905.
Blewitt was a keen sportsman, big game hunter and traveller, frequently having shooting expeditions in India, Burma, Tibet, North America, South Africa and New Zealand. He was so attracted to New Zealand that he settled there, buying a farm at Teneko in 1905. Being a gallant Englishman, he returned to England to the call of duty at the outbreak of the Great War and volunteered for service. In September 1914, he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel to command 13th Battalion, Kings Royal Rifles, which he successfully did in the U.K. until June 1915. He was in charge of training camps and was subsequently sent to China to recruit a team of coolies to work in France, bringing them back to Europe in a chartered steamer. Lieutenant-Colonel Blewitt died of wounds received in an air raid while commanding a Chinese Labour Battalion at Andrique, France on 4th September 1917, aged 56.

Sold with research saved to CD and an original portrait photograph by Russell & Sons of Southsea.