Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

A good Great War C.M.G. group of seven awarded to Vice-Admiral G. B. Powell, Royal Navy, who was promoted for his services in the Boxer Rebellion, in which he was severely wounded at Tientsin

The Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (Lieut., R.N., H.M.S. Aurora); British War and Victory Medals (Capt., R.N.); French Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge in silver-gilt and enamels; French Croix de Guerre 1914-1917, with star on riband; Italian Order of the Crown, Commander’s neck badge in gold and enamels the sixth chipped and damaged, otherwise good very fine or better (7) £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines formed by Commander Ron Champion, RN.

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C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

French Legion of Honour London Gazette 10 March 1916.

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 22 February 1918.

Italian Order of the Crown London Gazette 7 November 1916.

George Bingham Powell was born in 1871 and entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet in July 1884. Advanced to Midshipman in May 1887 and to Lieutenant in October 1895, he served with distinction in the Boxer Rebellion when landed from H.M.S. Aurora for the relief of Pekin. Indeed Powell was mentioned in despatches by Vice-Admiral E.H. Seymour for engaging the enemy with a 6-pounder gun, with the Russians, outside Tientsin on 17 June 1900, and again, two days later, for joining Commander Beatty and three companies of Bluejackets in an attempt to capture two enemy guns. On this latter occasion, ‘a large force of Chinese [suddenly] appeared to the right behind a mud wall and poured in a heavy fire,’ and he was severely wounded. Luckily, Able Seaman Parsonage, also of the Aurora, carried him to safety over open ground swept by fire, winning himself a C.G.M. in the process. Powell was consequently rewarded with his first command, the Kinsha, and in her navigated the rapids of the Yangtze, winning himself early promotion to Commander in 1903.

The outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 found Powell serving as a Captain and Chief of Staff to Vice-Admiral Sir A. Limpus, the Senior Naval Officer at Malta, in which post he was awarded the French Legion of Honour and Italian Order of the Crown, in addition to receiving a piece of presentation Sevres from the former nation. And in 1917 he became Liaison Officer to the French Admiral of Patrols in the Mediterranean, gaining a mention in the latter’s despatches and the Croix de Guerre. His final wartime appointment was as Captain of the cruiser Devonshire in the North Atlantic on convoy duties, 1918 also witnessing the award of his C.M.G.

Powell’s last seagoing appointment, as Captain of the Monarch, ended in 1919 and he was placed on the Retired List as a Vice-Admiral in 1921. He retired to Portsmouth and died in May 1952.