Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War C.B.E., M.C., group of five awarded to Chaplain to the Forces First Class, The Reverend J. Carden, Army Chaplains’ Department, who was robbed and murdered in Cairo by a local fruit hawker and his accomplice

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander's 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with neck riband; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Rev. J. Carden. A.C.D.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Rev. J. Carden.) mounted as worn, good very fine and better (5) £1,800-£2,200

C.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919:
'For valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in France.'

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1916.

Portugal, Kingdom, Order of Christ, Commander, London Gazette 7 October 1919.

John Carden was born Gustav John Hessenauer at Wurtemberg on 22 March 1882, the son of Gustav John Hessenauer, a commercial clerk, and his wife, Annie Louisa Redman, of 71 Brailsford Road, Lambeth, Surrey. Educated at Canterbury Cathedral School and Dulwich College, he was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church at St. Joseph's, Roehampton, on 18 January 1903. A year later he entered St. Augustine's House, Walworth, to prepare to enter Seminary, transferring to St. John's at Wonersh to study for the priesthood on 1 September 1905. Ordained a priest for the Diocese of Southwark, Hessenauer took up his first appointment at a parish in Chatham on 6 April 1910.

Appointed Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class, on the outbreak of hostilities, he served in France and Belgium from 9 May 1915 and was decorated with the Military Cross. Raised Assistant Principal Chaplain, and later Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 1st Class, his good work was further recognised in Sir Douglas Haig's despatch of 16 March 1919. A little before this time, Father Hessenauer changed his name by deed poll to Carden; all of his awards, save his M.C., were gazetted to him as John Carden.

Retained in the service as Chaplain to the Forces, Carden was posted to Egypt as Senior Catholic Chaplain in 1924. Appointed Chaplain to the Forces, 2nd Class, and posted to Headquarters, Southern Command, as Assistant Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain, he was raised Chaplain to the Forces, 1st Class, on 1 March 1931, before taking retirement and taking residence at Cairo in the spring of 1932. Two years later he was murdered. An extract from the Daily Mail describes the incident:

'The victim is a former Roman Catholic chaplain in the British Army, Father John Carden, aged 51, who resigned his commission two years ago. Last June he came to live in Egypt. Early this morning his unclothed body was found by a servant in a bedroom of the lonely villa which he rented at Helmich, a Cairo suburb, with the head almost severed.

An old razor blade was wedged fast in the wound in his throat and his chest bore terrible slashes as evidence of the desperate struggle he must have waged against his assassins. Police inquiry reveals that robbery was apparently the motive of the crime, as drawers had been emptied and papers ransacked in Father Carden's house.'

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