Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-War C.B. group of nine awarded to Chaplain of the Fleet the Right Reverend Ambrose Weekes, Royal Navy, later Dean of Gibraltar and Suffragan Bishop in Europe

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with both full and miniature-width neck ribands, in Collingwood, London, case of issue; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (Chaplain A. W. M. Weekes R.N.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed as issued; Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Brunei (Chaplain A. W. M. Weekes. R.N.); General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Borneo (Chaplain Revd. A. W. M. Weekes. R.N.) service officially corrected; Jubilee 1977, unnamed as issued; Malaysia, Federation, Pingat Jasa Malaysia, in case of issue, second to eighth mounted as worn; together with the related miniature awards, the NGS 1915-62 for Brunei inexplicably replaced with a GSM 1918-62 for Brunei, the first eight mounted as worn, the PJM loose in case of issue, contact marks to the Second War pair, otherwise generally good very fine (lot) £1,000-£1,400

C.B. London Gazette 13 June 1970.

The Right Reverend Ambrose Walter Marcus Weekes was born in Queensborough, Kent, in 1919, and was educated at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School, Rochester, and King’s College, London. He was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Chavasse, O.B.E., M.C. (and the twin brother of Noel Chavasse, V.C. and Bar, M.C.) on 31 May 1942, and Priest the following year, prior to joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a Chaplain. He served during the Second World War in H.M.S. Drake and during the Korean War in H.M.S. Triumph and, remaining in the Navy, rose through the ecclesiastical ranks, becoming Chaplain of the Fleet - the most senior Chaplain in the Royal Navy - in 1969.

Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1970 Birthday Honours List, Weekes retired from the Royal Navy in 1972, and was offered the Chaplaincy of Tangier in Morocco. The following year, he left Tangier to become Dean of Gibraltar, from which, in 1977, he was consecrated Suffragan Bishop in the newly created Diocese in Europe (the Diocese which was responsible for all of the Anglican Churches in Continental Europe). Over the next nine years he visited every Capital City in Europe (a large number of which were still behind the Iron Curtain), before retiring in 1986, and becoming the priest of the English Church in Montreux. Here his patch was equally large and diverse, and included the ski resorts of Verbier and St. Moritz (the latter a significant distance from the shore of Lake Geneva!).

Finally retiring back to London, Weekes spent the last few years of his life undertaking various cruises, usually on the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2, visiting many of the places he had seen during his time in the Navy or as Bishop in Europe. He died in London on 24 April 2012.

Sold with the recipient’s pre-1977 riband bar; Chaplain of the Fleet Badge; RN Officiating Chaplain Badge; identity disc; Royal Navy cap badge tally; two Archdeacon of the Royal Navy Certificates, both signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey; Freedom of the City of London Certificate; various photographs of H.M.S. Ark Royal; and a copy of the recipient’s memoirs: An Interesting Life, the Memoirs of Rt. Revd. Ambrose W. M. Weekes, CB, QHC, AKC, FKC, RN, which contain many photographs.