GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
785
The rare and historically interesting inter-war C.M.G., Great War M.C. group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel J.
W. F. “Frankie” Thelwall, Commercial Secretary at the British Embassy in Berlin 1919-34, late Intelligence Corps:
having served as a 1st Class Agent and Gough’s Fifth Army Intelligence Officer 1916-18, he returned to his Foreign
Office career in Berlin and witnessed the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler - the compiler of
internationally acclaimed annual reports on German politics and economics, he was to make some prophetic and
chilling observations on the effects of Nazi rule just prior to his sudden death in 1934
THE MOST DISTINGUISHED ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel;
MILITARY CROSS, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 STAR (2 Lieut. J. W. F. Thelwall); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (Capt.
J. W. F. Thelwall); FRENCH CROIX DE GUERRE 1914-1917, with gilt star riband fitment, mounted as worn where applicable,
contact marks and somewhat polished but otherwise generally very fine (6) £1800-2200
C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1932.
M.C. London Gazette 4 June 1917.
John Walter Francis Thewall was born in Klagenfurt, Austria in 1884 and educated abroad, at Ushaw College, Durham and Trinity
College, Oxford. A fluent German speaker, he was appointed Vice-Consul at Frankfort-on-the Main in January 1910 and served as
Acting Consul there in 1913-14.
Intelligence Agent and Officer
War was declared by Great Britain on Germany 4 August 1914 and Thelwall was probably lucky to have avoided internment by the
German authorities. However he did it, he enlisted as a Private in the 11th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment in September 1914, and
was commissioned into the 12th Battalion, Essex Regiment in February 1915.
In July of the latter year he was appointed to the Intelligence Corps and transferred to the General List, shortly thereafter proceeding to
France, where he was attached to Headquarters Indian Cavalry Corps. And he subsequently rose swiftly as an Intelligence Officer,
being attached to Headquarters XIIIth Corps, December 1915, and to Headquarters Fifth Army, August 1916, gaining advancement to
1st Class Agent with the rank of Captain that December, in addition to his awards of the Military Cross in June 1917 and the French
Croix de Guerre in April 1918.
Further research is needed to determine exactly what Thelwall did as an Intelligence Agent and Officer in Gough’s Fifth Army, both
before and after the German Spring Offensive of March 1918, but a recommendation in his service record for his promotion to
substantive rank gives some indication. Dated 19 April 1918, it recommends that Thelwall ‘is forwarded for favourable consideration
with a view to his being granted the rank of substantive Captain ... This Officer has been 1st Intelligence Officer at an Army H.Q. since
11 April 1916, and has done extremely good work since the Offensive which commenced on March 21st. It is largely owing to his
efficiency that the situation with the regard to the number of German Divisions employed against this Army has been so closely
followed.’
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