Orders, Decorations & Medals - British Groups

Lot 2932    SESSION 14 (2.30PM THURSDAY 1ST AUG)    Orders, Decorations & Medals - British Groups

Estimate $3,500
Bid at live.noble.com.au

GROUP OF EIGHT TO DIPLOMAT: The Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George, Companion (CMG), neck badge; The Royal Victorian Order, Commander (CVO), neck badge; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Naval General Service Medal 1909-62, - clasp - Canal Zone; Malta George Cross 50th Anniversary Commemorative Medal. The first medal unnamed as issued, the second medal with 1765 on reverse, the third to sixth and eighth medals unnamed as issued, Cdr J.Edmonds RN on seventh medal. The second and seventh medals engraved.; another Trio: France and Germany Star; Defence Medal 1939-45; War Medal 1939-45. Unnamed as issued but attributed to Miss A.Williams, his second wife although the note with the medals box indicates that only two medals were issued. The first two orders in cases of issue and uncirculated, the remaining group court mounted, good very fine and the trio also court mounted, contact marks, otherwise very fine.

Together with a parchment bestowal document for the award of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George as a Companion to John Christopher Edmonds Esq, dated 3 June 1978 and signed by the Queen, another for the award of the Royal Victorian Order as a Commander to John Christopher Edmonds Esq, dated 24 October 1971 and signed by the Queen, also a photo of Edmonds and several letters from government MPs including The Rt Hon Theresa May as well as some signed by Mountbatten of Burma.^CMG: Supplement to LG 3/6/1978, p6231 - to John Christopher Edmonds CVO, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. ^CVO: Awarded in 1971 but London Gazette details not sighted.^John Christopher Edmonds was born on 23 June 1921, the son of a naval officer. He was educated at Kelly College in Tavistock, Devon and after finishing school, like his father, he also joined the Royal Navy. During World War II he saw action in the Norwegian Campaign in 1940 and then in 1941 served in the battleship Warspite in the Battle of Cape Matapan. He spent two years on the cruiser Phoebe overseeing the evacuation from Crete before the cruiser was torpedoed off Tobruk and sent to New York for repairs. On returning to the Mediterranean in 1942 the Phoebe took part in Operation Pedestal, the last great Malta convoy. Later she was torpedoed for a second time off Pointe Noire in West Africa with 52 crew members killed.^At some stage of the war Edmonds was sent to the USA as part of a team of young and personable officers who had seen action. Their task was to drum up support for the British war effort but Edmonds considered it a waste of time. After a stint as an instructor at the HMS King Alfred training establishment at Hove, he passed Staff College in 1946 and was sent to Hong Kong on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief. At the time of the Suez crisis he was on the staff of the C-in-C Home Fleet but as he disapproved of the venture he decided to leave the Navy and apply for the Diplomatic Service.^He took the Foreign Office exam in 1958 passing out on top ahead of several Oxbridge Firsts. His naval training never left him and he was a stickler for protocol. He joined the Foreign Office in September 1959 and was appointed desk officer for Yemen and Saudi Arabia. After serving as First Secretary Commercial in Tokyo in 1960-62 and as head of the international section of the Foreign Office's Information Research Department in 1963-67 he then went as First Secretary and Head of Chancery to Ankara. He remained there for four years and was promoted to counsellor and periodically as charge d'affaires.^Edmonds took up his post as head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Department in 1975 at a critical time in the Cold War. He was heavily involved in negotiations with the Russians on achieving a Test Ban Treaty. He was deputy to Sir Percy Cradock, the leader of the UK delegation however the talks stalled. Edmonds replaced Cradock as leader of the UK Delegation in 1978 however leadership changes in America and the UK resulted in talks coming to an end although they were resumed in the 1990s. When he returned to London Edmonds wrote a paper on negotiating with the Russians and it is still valid today.^John Edmonds retired in 1981 although he continued to be involved in advising politicians on foreign affairs. He was a member of various non-governmental organisations including serving as chairman of the Council for Arms Control from 1990 to 1996. His family life included a marriage in 1948 to Baroness Elena Tornow of Baltic nobility. This marriage was dissolved in 1966 and he then married Armine Williams who died in 2005. John Christopher Edmonds died on 17 August 2015.^With research.