Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson

A rare Great War M.C., M.M. group of eight awarded to Warrant Officer Class 2 J. Stuart, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, late The Gordon Highlanders

Military Cross, G.V.R.; Military Medal, G.V.R. (1033 C.S. Mjr. J. Stuart, 2/A. & S. Hdrs.); 1914 Star, with clasp (1033 L. Sjt., 2/A. & S. Highrs.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (1033 W.O. Cl. 1, Gordons); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1920 (292584 W.O. Cl. 1, Gord. Highrs.); Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., Regular Army (2868188 W.O. Cl. II, M.C., M.M., A. & S.H.); French Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 the sixth with officially corrected unit, contact marks and polished, thus good fine or better (8) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson.

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Collection

See Colour Plate VI.

A little over 400 military personnel won an M.C., M.M. combination in the Great War.

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

M.M. London Gazette 11 October 1916.

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 17 August 1918.

John Stuart began the Great War as a Lance-Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and was disembarked with them at Boulogne on 11 November 1914. He was subsequently awarded the M.M. for his services in the same unit, almost certainly as a result of gallantry on the Somme in mid-July 1916, when the Battalion suffered heavy casualties in attacks on High Wood and Mametz Wood. Stuart was transferred to the 1/7th Gordons in November 1916, with whom he won his M.C. as a Warrant Officer in 1918, but he is also known to have been attached to the 2nd and 6/7th Battalions of the Gordons during this period.

After the War, whilst still a Gordon, he was seconded to the Somali Police Force, and during his stint of service with them participated in the fifth, and final, expedition against the “Mad Mullah”, winning one of only two Africa General Service Medals awarded to the Gordons for Somaliland 1920, and the only one named to them as such. The other example, which is inscribed to the K.A.R., resides in the Regimental Museum’s collection.

The naming on Stuart’s Army L.S. and G.C. Medal would suggest that he eventually returned to his old regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.