A Great War and Second World War ‘North-West Europe’ M.i.D. Group of 7 awarded to Brigadier Alastair Wardrop Euing Crawford, 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment, late 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), comprising: British War and Victory Medals, 1914-1920 (Lieut. A. W. E. Crawford.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, 1939-45, the latter with bronze ‘M.i.D.’ oak leaf upon ribbon; Coronation, 1953; Group swing-mounted as worn, offered with brass ‘button stick’, the first two somewhat polished, generally good very fine (8) M.I.D.: London Gazette: 8 November, 1945 – ‘in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North-West Europe’Brigadier Alastair Wardrop Euing Crawford (1896-1978) was born on 5 July 1896 at Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Colonel Euing Russell Crawford and Ethel Kirk Crawford (née Paul). Passing out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he enlisted for service in the Great War with the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys) and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant on 16 June 1915. Serving in France and Flanders on the Western Front, he was promoted to Lieutenant on 1 July 1917 and after the culmination of the Great War, to Captain on 1 January 1922.He was later appointed Adjutant to the Ayrshire Yeomanry in the Territorial Force on 6 December 1926, a position in which he served for four years until vacating it on 6 December 1930. Returning to regular service, Crawford was promoted to Major on 1 September 1936 and retired at that rank the following year on 19 September 1937. With the outbreak of hostilities for WW2 in 1939, he returned to the Reserve of Officers and transferred from the Scots Greys to the Reconnaissance Corps on 29 November 1941. Research suggests that he took command of the 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment in the summer of 1942, later serving in Normandy, and was given a Mention-in-Despatches on 8 November 1945 at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel for ‘gallant and distinguished services’ for North-West Europe. The following year he retired, having exceeded the age limit, and was granted the rank of Honorary Brigadier.He married Helena Beatrice Dundas on 1 October 1924, and held the offices of Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant in later life. He died in 1978, and was buried at Grouville, Jersey.

Estimate: GBP 300-400