Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

Four: Captain the Hon. R. W. D. Legh, Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry, later 3rd Baton Newton and Hon. Colonel, 7th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. Hon. R. W. D. Legh.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19 (Capt. Hon. R. W. D. Legh. Lan. Hrs.); Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial, reverse officialy dated 1946, with integral top riband bar, the first three mounted as worn, the last loose, minor contact marks and small verdigris spot to the third, otherwise better than very fine

Voluntary Medical Service Medal, with ‘Geneva Cross’ Second Award Bar (The Lady Newton) good very fine (5) £600-£800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The David Laban Collection of Territorial Force War Medal Groups.

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Richard William Davenport Legh, 3rd Baron Newton, was born on 18 November 1888, the son of the British diplomat and Conservative politician Thomas Wodehouse Legh, 2nd Baron Newton. His grandfather, William John Legh, also a Conservative politician, had been raised to the peerage as Baron Newton, of Newton-in-Makerfield in the County Palatine of Lancaster. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was an attaché for the British Embassy at Istanbul (later Vienna), and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry on 1 March 1910. He served with the Lancashire Hussars during the Great War, was appointed a Staff Captain on 17 July 1917, and for his services was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 11 December 1917). He relinquished his commission on account of ill health on 17 January 1919, and was entitled to the Silver War Badge

Having succeeded to the peerage, Lord Newton was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 7th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, on 4 April 1939, and during the Second World War he served as a Staff Captain at the War Office. He was awarded the Efficiency Decoration in 1946 (London Gazette 31 January 1946), and died on 11 June 1960, at age 71.

The Hon. Helen Winifred Meysey-Thompson, Lady Newton, wife of the above, was born on 14 June 1889, the daughter of Henry Meysey Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough, and married the Hon. Richard William Davenport Legh, later 3rd Baron Newton, on 28 January 1914. She died on 28 December 1958 at age 69.