Beschreibung:

‘He was all that you could have desired and all that our race needs to keep its honour fair and bright.’ Winston Churchill in a letter of condolence to Lord and Lady Desborough, the parents of Captain Hon. Julian Grenfell, D.S.O. The important and poignant British Expeditionary Force 1914 operations D.S.O. group of five awarded to Captain The Hon. J. H. F. Grenfell, 1st Royal Dragoons, the noted war poet whose “Into Battle” received critical acclaim on being published by The Times on his death from wounds in May 1915 and became one of the most anthologized poems of the century ‘Brother, brother, if this be the last song you shall sing, sing well, for you may not sing another; Brother, sing’: more controversial was his declaration that he adored war - ‘It’s like a big picnic without the objectlessness of a picnic’ - but his fearless example in battle and marksmanship as a sniper won him the admiration of all, including Lord Kitchener who is said to have lost his composure on hearing of the poet’s demise Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; 1914 Star, clasp (Lt. Hon. J. H. F. Grenfell, 1/Dns.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. Hon. J. H. F. Grenfell); Coronation 1902, silver, in its Elkington & Co. case of issue, together with two Royal Dragoons badges, the campaign medals with original silk ribands, virtually as issued, extremely fine (5) D.S.O. London Gazette 1 January 1915: ‘On 15 November 1914 he succeeded in reaching a point behind the enemy’s trenches and making an excellent reconnaissance, furnishing early information of an impending attack by the enemy.’ Julian Henry Francis Grenfell was born at 4, St. James’s Square, London, in March 1888, the elder son of William Henry 1st Baron Desborough, K.C.V.O., and Ethel Priscilla, daughter of the Hon. Julian Henry Charles Fane, and grand-daughter of John, 11th Earl of Westmorland. Family connections put him in close contact with those at the high table of the Army, no less than Lord Kitchener, whom young Grenfell was to meet before the Boer War. He clearly had some effect on Kitchener, who wrote to him from the War: 'I got 80 (Boers) today, rather a good day.' All round sportsman and emerging poet Educated at Summerfields, Eton - where he edited the Eton College Chronicle and started The Outsider - and Balliol College, Oxford, young Julian was a multi-talented sportsman, his prowess as an athlete, boxer, horseman and oar being equalled by his reputation as a good shot, for as one biographer saw it, ‘he linked his belief to all the physical activities that he so much loved’. Julian also rode in his new horse, Buccaneer, in the Oxford Open Heavyweight Race. He clearly fancied his chances and heavily backed himself at 4-1, the result was never in doubt and he '...won much gold.' But from an early age he had also shown a talent for poetry, often including verse in his letters home and, in support of his love for the outdoor life, and loathing of the social gatherings favoured by his mother, once jested in a letter he sent from Eton - ‘I won’t go woman-hunting yet, I won’t be made a social pet!’ To his contemporaries at Oxford, he was a super-hero: ‘Julian did everything and shone in them all. He rowed, and he hunted, and he read and he roared with laughter, and he cracked his whip in the quad all night; he bought greyhounds from the miller of Hambledon, boxed all the local champions; capped poetry with the most precious of the dons and charmed everybody ... The only things he couldn’t stand were pose and affectation.’ Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Royal Dragoons in September 1909, he had embarked on a passionate affair with Pamela Lytton, wife of the 3rd Earl of Lytton of Knebworth. Such a liaison was not uncommon for a single gentleman of his prowess but she was left '...cut in half' when he was embarked for India with his unit. Stationed at Muttra, Grenfell wrote how he loved: