Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The group of eleven miniature dress medals attributed to/ representative of those worn by Brigadier-General D. G. Macpherson, Fort Garry Horse

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type badge, silver-gilt, and 2nd type riband; British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893, 1 clasp, Rhodesia 1896; Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 1 clasp, Bechuanaland; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laing’s Nek; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902; Natal 1906, 1 clasp, 1906; 1914 Star, with clasp; British War and Victory Medals; Coronation 1911; Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., with integral top riband bar, good very fine (11) £240-£280

C.B.E. London Gazette 22 March 1919:
‘For valuable services rendered in connection with the War.’

Duncan Gordon Macpherson was born in Derby on 20 November 1877, the son of Major Donald Macpherson, Royal Highlanders, and was educated at Belford Grammar School. Having emigrated to South Africa, he served in Matebeleland with the Bulawayo Field Force in 1896; in Bechuanaland with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Volunteer Rifles in 1897; throughout the Boer War with the Scottish Horse (Mentioned in Despatches); and in Zululand with the Transvaal Mounted Rifles in 1906.

Emigrating to Canada, Macpherson attested for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Valcartier on 25 September 1914, and saw further service during the Great War as one of the original members of the First Canadian Contingent as third in command of the 6th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Fort Garry Horse). Advanced Lieutenant-Colonel, his name was brought to the notice of the Secretary State for War for valuable services rendered in connection with the War (War Officer List 24 February 1917). Subsequently seconded to the War Office from 2 April 1917, for his services during the Great War he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and was promoted temporary Brigadier-General on 28 February 1919. He died on 21 April 1959.