Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

A post-War Order of St. John group of twelve awarded to Major. L. P. Clarke, Norfolk Regiment, later Royal Army Medical Corps
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Officer’s (Brother’s) breast badge, silver and enamel, with heraldic beasts in angles, enamel chip to one arm of cross; British War and Victory Medals (Lt. L. P. Clarke. Norf. R.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19 (Lt. L. P. Clarke. Norf. R.); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919 (Lt. L. P. Clarke. Norf. R.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, lacking clasp but with ‘8’ riband emblem on riband; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Territorial, reverse officially dated 1945 and additionally engraved ‘Major L. P. Clarke. R.A.M.C.’, with three Additional Award Bars, all E.II.R., two officially dated 1954 and the third dated 1955; Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (7872423 Pte. L. P. Clarke. 4-Arm. C. Coy.); Service Medal of the Order of St John, rhodium plated, unnamed as issued, mounted as worn; together with the related miniature awards (lacking Service Medal of the Order of St. John), these similarly mounted as worn; ands a riband bar for the four G.V.R. awards, all housed in a Gieves, London fitted case, the four G.V.R. awards all later issues, generally very fine and better

Three: Mrs. Molly D.-P. Clarke, British Red Cross Society
Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Voluntary Medical Service Medal, silver, with two Geneva Cross Additional Award Bars (Mrs. Molly Dighton-Probyn Clarke.); together with a British Red Cross Society Three Year Service Medal, the reverse numbered ‘49549’; and various Red Cross badges, buttons, and shoulder titles, very fine (lot) £600-£800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The David Laban Collection of Territorial Force War Medal Groups.

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Officer, Order of St. John, London Gazette 4 November 1977.

Lionel Percy Clarke was born on 21 June 1896 and was educated at St. Helens College, Southsea, and later the Engineering College at the Municipal College Portsmouth. He was commissioned from the ranks to be Second Lieutenant in the Norfolk Regiment on 24 December 1916, and served with them during the Great War on the Western Front, receiving a gun shot wound to the left shoulder whilst attached to the Machine Gun Corps. He transferred to the Royal Air Force in April 1918 and served in India and Mesopotamia, and then on attachment to the Armament School. He saw further service with the Norfolk Regiment, attached 222nd Company, Machine Gun Corps during the Third Afghan War.

After demobilisation, Clarke re-enlisted into the ranks of the 4th (County of London) Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps in December 1920 whilst a Medical Student, and was awarded his T.F.E.M. in August 1921. The following month he was re-appointed a Lieutenant in the Norfolk Regiment (Territorial Force), on 26 September 1921, and having qualified as a Doctor in 1930, transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial Force) the following year. In the October 1941 Army List he is shown as Captain, R.A.M.C., T.A., and War Substantive Major, with seniority 14 March 1941.

Clarke was awarded the Efficiency Decoration in 1946 (London Gazette 26 September 1946); the first and second clasps in 1954 (London Gazette 20 July 1954), and the third clasp the following year (London Gazette 25 October 1955). He resigned his commission on retirement in 1955 and died in Hampshire in 1980.

Sold with the recipient’s original military driving licence (in French) for his service in North Africa in 1941, containing photograph; and two framed studio portrait photographs in uniform, one probably dating from the Great War and another in later life; also with a family New Testament Bible inscribed with his name.