The regimentally unique and important Great War C.B., C.M.G., and D.S.O. group of twelve awa...

The regimentally unique and important Great War C.B., C.M.G., and D.S.O. group of twelve awarded to Brigadier-General C. F. Aspinall-Oglander, Royal Munster Fusiliers, one of General Sir Ian Hamilton’s most trusted aides throughout the Gallipoli campaign, of which he wrote the Official History, and afterwards Chief Staff Officer of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division in France

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, minor glue deposits to obverse centre; Ashanti 1900, no clasp (Lieut C. F. Aspinall, R. Muns: Fus:) high relief bust, officially engraved naming; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Lieut: C. F. Aspinall, R: Muns: Fus:) officially engraved naming, clasps all contemporary tailor’s copies; India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1908, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1908 (Lieut. C. F. Aspinall, 1st Rl. M. Fus:); 1914-15 Star (Capt. C. F. Aspinall. R. Muns. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Brig. Gen. C. F. Aspinall.); Delhi Durbar 1911, silver (Capt. C. F. Aspinall, Royal Munster Fusiliers) privately engraved naming; France, Third Republic, Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s Fifth Class breast badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamels; Thailand, Kingdom, Order of the White Elephant, a post-1941 Second Class set of insignia, comprising neck badge and breast star, silver, silver-gilt and enamels, presumably in substitute for the earlier style insignia introduced after Siam officially became Thailand in 1939, the D.S.O. group of nine mounted court-style, some traces of old lacquer, edge bruise to the Q.S.A. and light contact marks to the earlier campaign medals, otherwise generally good very fine or better (13) £9,000-£12,000

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C.B. London Gazette 1 January 1919: ‘Maj. and Bt. Lt-Col. (T/Brig.-Gen.), R. Muns. Fis. For valuable services rendered in connection with the military operations in France and Flanders.’

C.M.G. London Gazette 14 March 1916: ‘Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel), Royal Munster Fusiliers. For distinguished services rendered in connection with the withdrawal of the Force from the Gallipoli Peninsula'.

D.S.O. London Gazette 4 June 1917: ‘Maj. & Bt. Lt. Col., R. Muns. Fus. For distinguished service in the Field.

Legion d'Honneur, Chevalier (France) London Gazette 24 February 1916.

Order of the White Elephant, 2nd Class (Siam) London Gazette 9 November 1918.

M.I.D. London Gazettes 5 August and 5 November 1915; 6 January, 10 April, 5 May and 13 July 1916: 15 May 1917: 20 May and 20 December 1918.

Cecil Faber Aspinall was born at Wrexham, Denbighshire, in 1878 and educated at the Isle of Wight College and at Rugby. He entered the Army via commissions in the Volunteers (4th East Surrey) and the Militia (7th Battalion Royal Fusiliers). In 1900, simultaneous commitments to wars in South Africa and China left the Army short of officers to deal with disturbances in other parts of the Empire, such as that which broke out in West Africa in 1900. There, the Ashanti rose in rebellion, besieging the Governor at the inland settlement at Kumassi. Aspinall volunteered as a Special Service Officer, as a result of which he received a commission in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, thus becoming one of only a handful of Munsters’ officers and men present for this campaign. Attached to the West African Regiment, he joined one of the columns that was struggling from the coast through exceptionally thick bush to put down the rebellion. He was present at the action at Obassa, the last at which the Ashanti confronted the imperial forces in significant numbers. The hectic and often close-quarters nature of the fighting is testified to by the citation to the Victoria Cross earned there by one of his fellow officers, Major John Melliss. This first taste of battle brought Aspinall himself a mention in despatches (London Gazette 8 March 1901): ‘a general advance of three companies took place with two in support and Sikhs in reserve, one company of the West African Regiment on our right under Captain St. Hill, with Lieutenant Aspinall, doing particularly good work and driving the enemy back on the village of Obassa.’

Having made it to South Africa in time to see service against the Boers, Aspinall accompanied 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers to India at the conclusion of the war, and was present during its participation in the expeditions against the Zakha Khels and Mohmands on the North West Frontier in 1908. He earned a place on the course at the Indian Staff College, Quetta, and his successful graduation was followed by a post at G.H.Q. India, coinciding with the Imperial Durbar held at Delhi in 1911. Aspinall was the only officer of his regiment selected to receive its commemorative medal.

Returning to England in 1913, Aspinall was posted to the War Office and had the unusual assignment of spending four months on a tour of Europe with Prince Prajadhipok of Siam (the future King Rama VIl), who was educated at Eton and afterwards studied for a commission in the Royal Artillery. When, in France four years later, Aspinall came into contact with the Siamese military delegation, his earlier services were recalled and recognised by appointment to the Siamese Order of the White Elephant (’for the kind services which you have rendered and the interest you have always taken in Siam and the Siamese’).

At the outbreak of the Great War, Aspinall continued in a temporary position at the War Office while he waited for a regimental vacancy to become available. Successfully interviewed in March 1915 for appointment as second-in-command of the newly-forming Welsh Guards, the very next day he was abruptly informed that he would be joining the staff of Sir Ian Hamilton's Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, leaving immediately.

The Dardanelles Campaign
Having spent the previous night at the War Office completing the embarkation tables for the force, Aspinall left with Hamilton and his advance party of a dozen officers on 13 March. After crossing the Channel by destroyer, the party travelled by special train to Marseilles and there embarked in another destroyer, H.M.S. Phaeton, which delivered them in rapid time to the island of Tenedos (off the coast of Turkey) on the 17, to confer with Rear Admiral John de Robeck (Naval C-in-C) and his French counterparts. The following day, still aboard Phaeton, Aspinall had his first sight of the Gallipoli Peninsula as they conducted a reconnaissance of possible landing places, then witnessed the failure of the last of the Royal Navy's attempts to force the Straits of Constantinople by sea power alone. The requirement to use land forces had been placed beyond doubt, and it was to this object that Hamilton and his staff now turned their attention.

Correspondence clearly indicates that Aspinall was one of Hamilton's most trusted officers and he features often in his chief's published diaries of the Dardanelles campaign. During the initial landings at Cape Helles on 25 April he accompanied the Commander-in-Chief aboard the battleship H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth. Instructions for this group indicated that they had to be prepared to land when necessary, to act as Hamilton's eyes and ears on the ground. This could be very much a 'hands on' role, as one episode recorded by Hamilton recounts:

‘A certain number of stragglers were slipping quietly back towards Cape Helles along the narrow sandy strip at the f...