Lot 750: The Boer War D.S.O. and Great War O.B.E. group of

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Description: The Boer War D.S.O. and Great War O.B.E. group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. V. K. Applin, 14th Hussars, formerly a District Officer with the British North Borneo Company during the Syed and Mat Salleh rebellions of 1895-97, a machine-gun expert who commanded the machine-guns of the 2nd ANZACs at the battles of Messines, Passchendaele and 3rd Ypres in 1916-17; he later confided that he had "found out in 1904 all that the Germans taught us at such a cost in human lives in 1914, and which culminated in 1917 at Messines, when our 280 machine-guns, firing over the heads of our attacking infantry, rained one hundred thousand bullets a minute upon the German trenches with terrible effect Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer's 1st type breast badge; Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901(Capt. R. V. K. Applin, Lanc. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals, with MID oak leaf (Lt. Col. R. V. K. Applin); British North Borneo Company Medal, silver, clasp, Punitive Expedition (R. V. K. Applin, Supt. N.B.C.) this last excessively rare, together with a copy of his autobiography Across the Seven Seas (published 1937), wreaths and lower arm of D.S.O. chipped, otherwise nearly very fine or better (6) £5000-6000