GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY 28
A Great War ‘Battle of Arras’ M.C. group of eleven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel G. H. S. R. V. de Gaury, Hampshire Regiment, later Essex Regiment, who was wounded once at Gallipoli and three times in France; a noted Arabist, explorer, historian and diplomat who shared in the creation of the Arab states that emerged between the wars, he was the author of many books on the Middle East including his autobiography Traces of Travel
MILITARY CROSS, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 STAR (2 Lieut. G. H. S. R. V. De Gaury, Hamps. R.); BRITISHWAR AND VICTORYMEDALS (Capt. G. H. S. R. V. De Gaury); GENERAL SERVICE 1918-62, 1 clasp, Southern Desert, Iraq (Capt. G. H. S. R. V. De Gaury, Essex R.); 1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS 1939-45; CORONATION 1937; Iraq, Kingdom, ACTIVE SERVICE MEDAL, with clasp for Southern Kurdistan 1930-31, contact marks, otherwise very fine and better, the Southern Desert Iraq clasp rare to the British Army (11)
£4000-5000
M.C. London Gazette 18 July 1917: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He displayed the greatest gallantry and initiative in organising and leading bombing attacks. Although subjected to heavy machine gun and rifle fire he captured an important enemy post. His fine example and disregard of danger were of great value to his men.’
Gerald Simpson Rutland Hillairiet Vere de Gaury was born at Paddington on 1 April 1897. Commissioned into the Hampshire Regiment in August 1914 he served throughout the war in France, Belgium and at Gallipoli, during which he was wounded four times and awarded the Military Cross. He served in Gallipoli with the 10th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment from June 1915 until he was wounded at Chunuk Bair on 10 August. He then joined the 1st Battalion in France and Belgium in July 1916, and was with ‘B’ Company, 1st Hampshires in the Battle of Arras, on the left flank, when he won his Military Cross. He commanded ‘C’ Company 1st Hampshires at the Battle of Broodseinde (Passchendaele, 4 October 1917), and was wounded during operations in the summer of 1918. He returned to the Battalion in August 1918, in command of ‘B’ Company, and was wounded during the attack on Drocourt- Queant Line on 2 September 1918, shot down by machine-gun fire, some six bullets being later found in his right leg.
After the war he was employed with the Iraq Levies, April 1924 to January 1927; with the Iraq Army, February to September 1927; and was specially employed under the Air Ministry, September 1927 to June 1928 and March to May 1930. He took part in the operations against the Akhwan in the Southern Desert of Iraq, from January to June 1928, and was one of a small handful of British Army officers to receive the medal with this clasp.
His lifelong connection with Arabia and its peoples began when he was posted in 1924 to Iraq which, despite excursions elsewhere, remained his deepest and most personal interest until the 1958 revolution. He was one of the very few whose services brought him into close and lasting friendship with the ruling families of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In his early years he served with the British Mission and with R.A.F. Command taking part in operations in Kurdistan and Southern Iraq. In 1935 he accompanied Sir Andrew Ryan, the first British Minister to Saudi Arabia, on his first visit to King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud at Riyadh.
In 1936-39 he was Political Agent in Kuwait and in the winter of 1939-40 again visited Riyadh as special emissary to Ibn Saud. He returned to Iraq as special envoy to his friend the Regent, Prince Abdul Illah, during the Rashid Ali Revolt of 1941 and took part in liaison with the rebels leading to their surrender. After the Iraq campaign de Gaury rejoined the Army to raise and command the Druze Cavalry which took part in General Maitland Wilson’s campaign against the Vichy French in Syria. His second-in-command in the Druze Cavalry was none other than Wilfred Thesiger, another great Arab expert. Other wartime assignments, including attachment to the staff of the British Minister of State in Cairo, involved de Gaury in other Arab liaison missions, amongst these being the visit to the U.K. by Prince Faisal (later King of Saudi Arabia) in 1943.
De Gaury’s travels in the Middle East continued until 1965 and took him further afield than Saudi Arabia and his beloved Hashemite Iraq. In 1956 he negotiated copper and mineral exploration rights in Muscat and Oman, and in 1962 at the age of 65 he visited the Imam’s cave stronghold in war torn Yemen. He died at his home in Brighton on 13 January 1984, aged 86.
A noted author, his wartime publication, Saudi Arabian Notebook (Cairo 1943) was followed by twelve other diverse works from Arabia Phoenix in 1946, an account of his first journey to Riyadh and the then new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to Traces of Travel in 1983, an autobiographical selection of episodes and anecdotes from his life. His works included Rulers of Mecca (1950), a history of the Hashemite family who ruled Mecca for over a thousand years, and biographies of the ill-fated Hashemite dynasty in Iraq, Three Kings in Baghdad, and of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, on whom he wrote an obituary notice for the Iraq Times. He was a founder member of the Anglo-Iraqi Society and was also the editor of the first edition in English of Through Wahhabiland on Camelback by Barclay Raunkiaer.
Sold with four of his publications: Arabia Phoenix (1946), Arabian Journey (1950), The Road to Kabul (1981), and Traces of Travel (1983).
www.dnw.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256 |
Page 257 |
Page 258 |
Page 259 |
Page 260 |
Page 261 |
Page 262 |
Page 263 |
Page 264 |
Page 265 |
Page 266 |
Page 267 |
Page 268 |
Page 269 |
Page 270 |
Page 271 |
Page 272 |
Page 273 |
Page 274 |
Page 275 |
Page 276 |
Page 277 |
Page 278 |
Page 279 |
Page 280 |
Page 281 |
Page 282 |
Page 283 |
Page 284 |
Page 285 |
Page 286 |
Page 287 |
Page 288 |
Page 289 |
Page 290 |
Page 291 |
Page 292 |
Page 293 |
Page 294 |
Page 295 |
Page 296 |
Page 297 |
Page 298 |
Page 299 |
Page 300 |
Page 301 |
Page 302 |
Page 303 |
Page 304 |
Page 305 |
Page 306 |
Page 307 |
Page 308 |
Page 309 |
Page 310 |
Page 311 |
Page 312 |
Page 313 |
Page 314 |
Page 315 |
Page 316 |
Page 317 |
Page 318 |
Page 319 |
Page 320 |
Page 321 |
Page 322 |
Page 323 |
Page 324 |
Page 325 |
Page 326 |
Page 327 |
Page 328 |
Page 329 |
Page 330 |
Page 331 |
Page 332 |
Page 333 |
Page 334 |
Page 335
