A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces

A Great War M.B.E. group of three awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. D. Williams, 1st British Columbia Regiment, late 47th (British Columbia) Battalion, Canadian Infantry, and Royal Engineers

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 1st type breast badge, silver, hallmarks for London 1919; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col. R. D. Williams), rank officially corrected on these, very fine or better (3) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 5 June 1919.

Robert Drape Williams was born in Moffat, Scotland, in 1887, and worked in the Harvison Shipping Co. before moving to Canada in 1910. Articled to a law firm in Vancouver on the outbreak of hostilities, he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force in February 1915 - when he stated that he had previous service of two years in the Liverpool Scottish (Territorials) and was a Lieutenant in the Duke of Connaught’s Rifles (Militia).

Embarked for England, Williams went out to France with the 47th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, in July 1917, quickly saw action at Hill 70 and remained similarly employed until wounded in the elbow that September, when he was evacuated to England.

Subsequently employed in the 1st Canadian Reserve, he transferred to the British Army with an appointment in the Royal Engineers, and witnessed further action out in Mesopotamia, initially on the lines of communication but latterly on attachment to the Indian Army, as Assistant Director Port Traffic at Basra, in which latter capacity he was awarded the M.B.E. He was also briefly employed in India in September 1919.

Transferred to the 1st British Columbia Regiment after his return to Canada in 1920, he was placed on the Retired List as a Lieutenant-Colonel in May 1923, while in the 1939-45 War he rose to the command of the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion of the Regiment. He died in January 1969; sold with copied service papers.