Lot 908
908
A Fine Great War Battalion Commander's D.S.O., O.B.E. Group of Ten to Colonel J.H. Hastings, Who Raised and Commanded the 2/6th West Yorkshire Regiment, Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Officer's (O.B.E.), 1st type, Military Division, breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel (Hallmarks for London, 1919); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaf (Col.); Territorial War Medal 1914-18 (Lt. Col., W. York. R.); Coronation 1902, the reverse privately engraved, 'Capt. J.H. Hastings, 2/V.B. W. York. Regt.'; Coronation 1911, privately engraved, 'Lt. Col. J.H. Hastings, 6th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt.'; Volunteer Force Long Service, E.VII.R. (Major, 2/V.B. W. York. Regt.); Territorial Decoration, E.VII.R., silver, silver-gilt (Hallmarks for London, 1908), the reverse engraved, 'Lt. Col. J.H. Hastings, 6th Bn. West Yorks. Regt.'; France, Legion of Honour, Officer's breast Badge, gold and enamel, the first and l
A Fine Great War Battalion Commander's D.S.O., O.B.E. Group of Ten to Colonel J.H. Hastings, Who Raised and Commanded the 2/6th West Yorkshire Regiment, Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Officer's (O.B.E.), 1st type, Military Division, breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel (Hallmarks for London, 1919); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaf (Col.); Territorial War Medal 1914-18 (Lt. Col., W. York. R.); Coronation 1902, the reverse privately engraved, 'Capt. J.H. Hastings, 2/V.B. W. York. Regt.'; Coronation 1911, privately engraved, 'Lt. Col. J.H. Hastings, 6th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt.'; Volunteer Force Long Service, E.VII.R. (Major, 2/V.B. W. York. Regt.); Territorial Decoration, E.VII.R., silver, silver-gilt (Hallmarks for London, 1908), the reverse engraved, 'Lt. Col. J.H. Hastings, 6th Bn. West Yorks. Regt.'; France, Legion of Honour, Officer's breast Badge, gold and enamel, the first and last slightly chipped in places, generally good very fine or better (10)

Details
A Fine Great War Battalion Commander's D.S.O., O.B.E. Group of Ten to Colonel J.H. Hastings, Who Raised and Commanded the 2/6th West Yorkshire Regiment, Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Officer's (O.B.E.), 1st type, Military Division, breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel (Hallmarks for London, 1919); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaf (Col.); Territorial War Medal 1914-18 (Lt. Col., W. York. R.); Coronation 1902, the reverse privately engraved, 'Capt. J.H. Hastings, 2/V.B. W. York. Regt.'; Coronation 1911, privately engraved, 'Lt. Col. J.H. Hastings, 6th Bn. W. Yorks. Regt.'; Volunteer Force Long Service, E.VII.R. (Major, 2/V.B. W. York. Regt.); Territorial Decoration, E.VII.R., silver, silver-gilt (Hallmarks for London, 1908), the reverse engraved, 'Lt. Col. J.H. Hastings, 6th Bn. West Yorks. Regt.'; France, Legion of Honour, Officer's breast Badge, gold and enamel, the first and last slightly chipped in places, generally good very fine or better (10)

Lot Essay

D.S.O. London Gazette 8.8.1917.

O.B.E. London Gazette 3.6.1919.

Colonel John Henry Hastings, D.S.O., O.B.E., was born in 1858 and educated at Huddersfield College. Commissioned into the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1890, he rose to be C.O. of both the 2nd and 6th Battalions before the outbreak of hostilities. Hastings subsequently raised and commanded the 2/6th, taking the Battalion to France in January 1917, where it fought in the mud at Bullecourt and elsewhere prior to his resignation that July, due to age. Writing of his old C.O. in the Battalion's History, Captain E.C. Gregory described him as a man who was 'getting on in years' but who had been 'one of the first in Bradford to offer his services to the War Office'. For many months 'he had endured and shared, in spite of age, all the hardships of the Battalion, both in the mud at Beaumont Hamel, during the first German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, and finally amidst the slaughter of Bullecourt. He never spared himself and he loved and worked solely for the good and well-being of the Battalion'. Afterwards employed as a Town Major at Avras, and latterly as a Town Commandant, Hastings was twice Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Legion of Honour, in addition to his D.S.O. and O.B.E. The Colonel died in April 1940.