Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.C.M. group of four awarded to 2nd Lieutenant A. MacArtair, Royal Engineers, late Canadian Engineers

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (28776 Pte. A. MacArtair, Candn. Sg. Co.), first digit of service number overstruck; 1914-15 Star (28776 Spr. A. MacArtair, 1/Can. D.S. Coy.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut. A. MacArtair), the second sometime gilded, very fine and better (4) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Canadian Expeditonary Force 1914-1918.

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D.C.M. London Gazette 30 June 1915:

‘For conspicuous gallantry on 22-25 April 1915, when telephone lines were down, in carrying orders, under heavy shell and rifle fire, to St. Julian - Ypres.’

Alasdair MacArtair, who was born in August 1883, served as a Private in the 8th (Scottish) Volunteer Battalion, King’s Liverpool Regiment from December 1900 until March 1903, when he moved to Canada.

Enlisting in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the outbreak of hostilities, he was embarked for France in March 1915, where he joined No. 4 Section of the 1st Canadian Divisional Signal Company, C.E., as a Sapper, and it was in this capacity that he won his D.C.M. in the heavy fighting at St. Julien-Ypres in the following month and, more specifically, at Kitchener’s Wood.

Subsequently appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in April 1916, he returned to active service as a Signalling Officer in XIV and IX Corps, but owing to complaints about his efficiency - complaints that he disputed - MacArtair was compelled to resign his commission in October 1917; sold with copied service details and correspondence appertaining to the resignation of his commission.