WW1 & WW2 BRITISH & INDIAN ARMY OBE & 2 MID MEDAL GROUPS TO COLONEL BANKS & WIFE

Description

Offered is an Order of the British Empire medal group to Lieutenant Colonel Banks, who served as Judge Advocate General in India, Palestine and during WW2 served in the Advocate Generals Office in London. His O.B.E was Gazetted 18/6/1946, with a probable Nuremberg War Crimes link. A rare and unique campaign combination to a Legal Officer.

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E., Officer’s breast badge, Civil Division, type 2; British War and Victory Medal impressed named LIEUT. R. E. BANKS; India General Service Medal (1908-35), one clasp, AFGHANISTAN N.W.F. 1919, with MID Oakleaf, impressed named CAPT . R. E. BANKS. 2/15/SIKHS.; General Service Medal (1918-62), one clasp, IRAQ, impressed named CAPT. R.E. BANKS.; General Service Medal (1918-62), one clasp, PALESTINE, with MID Oakleaf, impressed named LT. COL. R. E. BANKS.; Defence Medal & War Medal (1939 – 45); King George V Jubilee Medal (1935); King George VI Coronation Medal (1937). Medals swing mounted as worn & comes with matching miniatures, original warrant Second Lieutenant Territorial Forces dated 26th October 1914 & Lieutenant dated 8th March 1918 (Indian Army), Buckingham Palace slip O.B.E., WW2 medal slips, Photograph Lt Colonel Banks in uniform wearing medals c.1937, calling card, Medal Index Card, Medal rolls & research.

British War and Victory Medals (1914-18), impressed named D. LEMARCHAND, with corresponding miniatures. Comes with WW1 V.A.D cloth badge, copy of medal roll, WW 1 Red Cross certificate, Red Cross records of service cards & extensive research & c.1970’s colour photo of Mr & Mrs Banks, showng the latter with an Order of the British Empire worn on her left breast (further research needed to confirm).

Lieutenant Colonel Russell Everard Banks O.B.E. was born on the 15/2/1891 in Mussoorie, India. His father was working in India as a Banker. The 1911 census records the family as living in Wooton, England & his father as a ‘Bank Manager’ with Russel a ‘Articled Clerk to Solicitor’. He was commissioned into the 6^th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment 26/10/1914, seconded to the Indian Army 6/4/1917, to the 15th Sikhs and served in Mesopotamia 7/2/1918 – 15/5/1918 (on detachment with the 36^th Sikhs). He was involved in the 3^rd Afghan War 1919, possibly as a Acting Captain and was awarded the M.I.D. He was deployed to Iraq as Acting Captain (Staff) 74^th Infantry Brigade 19/7/1920 – 16/2/1921. It is believed by this stage that he was working in the legal field within the unit as all listings record him as ‘Staff’. He was promoted to Lt. Colonel 1/8/1933. During his time in India Lt. Colonel Banks qualified for the Judge Advocate General’s Department and served at Army Headquarters as Deputy Judge Advocate General, Northern Command and officiating Judge Advocate General in India from 1/8/1926. He became dangerously ill and was invalided out of India, on recovering he was deployed to Palestine as Deputy Judge advocate General, Palestine & Trans Jordan (the Medal roll page that Banks is on starts with Lt Generals!). He retired on the 27/5/1937 and was placed on the inactive list, whilst in 1939 he was recalled to serve again in the offices of the Judge Advocate General in London.

He was awarded (L.G. 18.6.1946) the O.B.E in 1946 for his work in the department and it is believed that he was involved in the Nuremberg War Crimes trials post war.

Lt. Colonel Banks O.B.E. married Dorothy Le Marchand in 1920.

Dorothy Le Marchand was born on 16^th May 1898 in Nagpur, India. Her father was working in the forestry department. The family had returned to England from Brussels 10 days prior to the start of WW1. During the war she was taught how to drive and mechanical maintenance skills, she enrolled with the St Johns Ambulance on the 28/12/1917, after finishing her training she joined a voluntary unpaid ambulance convoy at Le Treport and shared her ambulance with Doris Watson, the daughter of General Watson. She was also the driver to the Commandants car and freely mixed with senior officers. She finished on the 3rd January 1919.

Dorothy attended Buckingham Palace in 1918 with her 1^st Cousin Brigadier Arthur Edward Cumming VC, when he was a junior officer and awarded the MC. (VC action Malaya 1942). Post war she returned to India to keep house for he bachelor brother Captain F.E. Le Marchand. 5^th Royal Gurkha Rifles where she met her husband Russell Everard Banks.

The Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) scheme,  set up in 1909 as a reserve of the Territorial Army (Forces Medical Service), was fully mobilised on outbreak of WW1. V.A.D. members, classed as ‘Mobile’ or ‘Immobile’ were, as individuals, also referred to as VADs.

Legal Assistant of the Office of the Judge Advocate

The Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Office at the War Office was the central point for legal advice on matters of military law and in 1945 became the focal point for legal questions concerning the prosecution of cases of war crimes committed during the Second World War. The main responsibility for this work rested with the Military Department of the JAG’s Office, headed by the Military Deputy to JAG.

The role of the Military Deputy’s Department was to provide legal advice on the investigation of cases and the evidence submitted and to examine the completed cases in order to advise on the charges to be brought. The JAG’s Office was also responsible for the provision of suitably qualified personnel to act as presidents and prosecutors in the trials before military courts, established under the royal warrant of 14 June 1945.

The various war crimes investigative bodies established in overseas commands such as the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), Central Mediterranean Force (CMF), British Troops Austria (BTA) and Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA), were primarily under the immediate control of the JAG in their respective theatre but the Military Deputy in London had an overall watching brief.

Members of the department were based in Headquarters throughout the UK. The prospect of large numbers of War Crimes trials prompted the establishment of a separate department dedicated to giving advice on investigations and prosecuting at such trials.