United Kingdom. A Miniature Group of Ten, attributed to Captain Charles Frederick Fairlie, Royal Army Medical Corps

Includes:

1. Miniature Group of Ten:

(i) Badge of the Order of St. John: in silver with white enamels, measuring 18.8 mm (w) x 18.8 mm (h), intact enamels.

(ii) British War Medal: in silver, measuring 17.8 mm in diameter.

(iii) Victory Medal: in bronze gilt, measuring 18.2 mm in diameter.

(iv) 1939-1945 Star: in bronze, measuring 19 mm (w) x 21.5 mm (h).

(v) Africa Star: in bronze, measuring 19 mm (w) x 21.5 mm (h).

(vi) Italy Star: in bronze, measuring 19 mm (w) x 21.5 mm (h).

(vii) Defence Medal: in silver, measuring 18.5 mm in diameter.

(viii) War Medal 19391-1945: in silver, measuring 18.7 mm in diameter.

(ix) Efficiency Decoration with Territorial Bar, George VI (GRI): in silver, measuring 14.7 mm (w) x 21.5 mm (h).

(x) Service Medal of the Order of St. John with Five Year Bar: in silver, measuring 17.5 in diameter. Mounted to a suspension bar with swing bar pinback, original ribbons, extremely fine.

2. Blyth & District Motor Club Medal: in bronze with red enamels, engraved "Dr. C. FAIRLIE / 12th JUNE 1927" on the reverse, measuring 26 mm (w) x 31 mm (h) inclusive of its integral ring, with suspension ring, intact enamels.

Accompanied by a brief one page biography and two photographs. Extremely fine.

Footnote: This group is attributed to Charles Frederick Fairlie, who was born on July 22, 1900 in Northumberland, the son of Dr. Archibald Fairlie (who had been president of the British Medical Association's North of England Branch in 1933-1934 and died on February 28, 1937, at the age of 72), his mother having passed away eighteen years before his father. He had one brother, Dr. Archibald Lambton Fairlie, born in 1897 and married Ethel Sly in 1927. He is noted as having been a Lieutenant with the Royal Army Medical Corps (TA) and attached to 72 Field Brigade, Royal Artillery, as of May 7, 1938.

One year later, on May 7, 1939, he was promoted to Captain. During the Second World War, Fairlie is alleged to have treated General Charles de Gaulle of France for pneumonia, with Fairlie himself having been saved from a shrapnel wound by a silver cigarette case. He is listed as a Captain in the RAMC in the Supplement to the Army List of December 1954, but not in the December 1955 edition. In his role as a civilian physician, he practised at 71 Waterloo Road in Blyth in 1957 and was a resident of Blyth at 53 Ridley Avenue. Fairlie was an active member of the British Medical Association's Blyth Division.

The British Medical Journal recorded that he was its chairman from April 12, 1934 to April 11, 1935 and had shown two cinematographic films (one taken on a trip to Spain) at its September 27, 1934 meeting. At its October 1, 1937 meeting, he had agreed to prepare a programme for a "smoker" in December, to which one of the Newcastle BMA lecturers was to be invited. As per the records of the Blyth Division meetings in the British Medical Journal, it would appear that he had been a talented amateur entertainer.