THE GROUP OF MINIATURE MEDALS WORN BY VICE-ADMIRAL BASIL CHARLES BARRINGTON BROOKE, C.B., C.B.E., A MEMBER OF THE BROOKE FAMILY THAT RULED THE KINGDOM OF SARAWAK 1841-1946, AND WHO, DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR, COMMANDED THE CRUISER HMS CURLEW, WHICH WAS SUNK BY THE LUFTWAFFE OFF NARVIK ON 26TH MAY 1940, AND THE LIGHT CRUISER HMS SOUTHAMPTON, ALSO SUNK BY THE LUFTWAFFE, OFF MALTA, ON 11TH JANUARY 1941.
VICE-ADMIRAL BROOKE WAS THE COUSIN OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN PATRICK GRANT, D.S.O., SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS, WHO WAS DEPICTED AS THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN LADY ELIZABETH BUTLER'S FAMOUS PAINTING "STAND FAST CRAIGELACHIE", WHICH IS NOW HOUSED IN THE SCOTTISH MILITARY MUSEUM, EDINBURGH. WHEN LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GRANT DIED WITHOUT ISSUE IN 1920, ADMIRAL BROOKE INHERITED THE GRANT FAMILY ESTATES FROM LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GRANT.This group of miniature medals is the only complete set of medals to Vice-Admiral Brooke that has survived, his full size First World War medals having been lost at sea when the ship he was commanding, HMS Curlew, was sunk in 1940.
Eleven: C.B., C.B.E., 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory Medals, 1939-45, Atlantic and Africa Stars, Burma Star with Pacific clasp on ribbon, 1939-45 War Medal and Jubilee Medal, 1935 (unnamed, as worn).
Silver medals attractively toned, generally Extremely Fine, virtually as struck and mounted court style, as worn.
Group accompanied by biographical details, 5 pages copied service papers, and some copied research, including extract from Burke's Landed Gentry re. the Brooke family of Sarawak.
Vice-Admiral Brooke (1895-1983) was born at Boddington House, Bayfield, Northamptonshire, 6/4/1895, the eldest son of John Charles Evelyn Hope Brooke (1858-1934), the grand-nephew of Sir James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, his mother being Violet Mary Barrington, the second daughter of the 9th Viscount Barrington. Brooke entered the navy as a Cadet in 1913, seeing service during the First World War and being promoted Lieutenant, March 1918, Lieutenant-Commander, March 1926, Commander, 1931 and Captain, June 1938. Brooke first saw service during WW2 in command of the cruiser HMS Curlew, sunk off Narvik May 1940, and afterwards commanded the light cruiser HMS Southampton, sunk off Malta, January 1941. Brooke subsequently commanded the cruiser HMS Renowned until July 1945, and was promoted Vice-Admiral on the Retired List in December 1950.
Admiral Brooke was a first class cricketer, who played for the Singapore National Cricket Team and the Royal Navy Cricket Club.
Vice-Admiral Brooke was the grandson of Anne Grant of Kilgraston, who married, in 1855, John Brooke Johnson-Brooke (1823-1868) the then Crown Prince of Sarawak and elder brother of Charles Brooke, the 2nd White Rajah of Sarawak.At the time of her marriage, Anne Grant's husband, John Brooke Johnson-Brooke, was the then heir-apparent to the throne of Sarawak. A dispute with his uncle, Sir James Brooke (1803-1868), the first white Rajah of Sarawak, regarding the ability of Sarawak to maintain its independence unsupported, led to Sir James Brooke disinheriting his nephew and banishing him from Sarawak.
The Grants of Kilgraston and the Brookes, Rajahs of Sarawak, had established close ties some time prior to the marriage of Anne Grant and John Brooke Johnson-Brooke in 1855. Sir James Brooke, who went on to become the first white Rajah, saw service during the First Burmese War, 1824-1826, with the East India Company's 18th Bengal Native Infantry. Severely wounded, he resigned his commission and subsequently established himself as a merchant adventurer at Singapore, which had been a British colonial naval base and commercial centre since 1819. Brooke went on to play a leading role in establishing friendly links between Singapore and Sarawak, which at that time was a subject territory of the Kingdom of Brunei. In 1840 Brooke assisted the Sultan of Brunei in putting down an insurrection, and as a reward was granted the sovereignty and trade of Sarawak, being proclaimed Rajah of Sarawak in 1841. During the late 1840's Brooke befriended Charles Thomas Constantine Grant of Kilgraston, an elder brother of Anne Grant, who was then serving as a midshipman aboard the Royal Navy's HMS Agincourt. Resigning his commission, Grant was appointed Aide de Camp to Brooke and later rose to become the Rajah's private secretary. When he took up his post with the future Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Grant became a member of a tight-knit circle of Scotsmen who had entered the service of the Rajahs of Sarawak, chiefly from the families of Brooke, Johnson and Grant, who strengthened their ties with the white rajahs through intermarriage, the marriage in 1855 of Anne Grant and John Brooke Johnson-Brooke being an early example of the many ties that were forged during the ensuing decades. The connection between the Brooke family and the Grants of Kilgraston was to come full circle in 1950, when Admiral Brooke's cousin, Lieutenant-Colonel John Patrick Grant of Kilgraston (who assumed the additional title of Nisbet-Hamilton of Biel in 1920 to become John Patrick Nisbet-Hamilton-Grant of Biel) died without an heir, whereupon his estates were inherited by Admiral Brooke, a cousin of Charles Vyner Brooke, the 3rd and last White Rajah of Sarawak.
Admiral Brooke's cousin, from whom he inherited Kilgraston, Lieutenant-Colonel John Patrick Grant, D.S.O., was depicted as the central figure in Lady Elizabeth Butler's famous painting "Stand Fast Craigelachie", which is now housed in the Scottish Military Museum, Edinburgh.
That painting, in which the then 2nd Lieutenant Grant is depicted as a lone Seaforth Highlander officer standing, claymore in hand, defiantly facing the enemy, in the midst of an engagement during the 1895 relief of Chitral. "Stand Fast Craigellachie", was painted as a tribute to the gallantry of Scottish soldiers during the Chitral campaign of 1895, the painting's title being based on the war cry of the Clan Grant.Grant is believed to have been chosen by Lady Butler as the model for her portrait because she had met him on numerous occasions, and was familiar with his military bearing and reputation as a soldier. As both a soldier and published writer, Grant moved freely between military and literary-artistic circles. In that regard, Grant was continuing a family tradition, his great-uncle, Sir Francis Grant (1803-1878) having been president of the Royal Academy.
The badge of the Clan Grant comprises an image of a burning hill, with a garter around bearing the clan motto "Craig Elachie". The burning hill depicted, Craig Elachie, was historically the rallying point for the Clan Grant in times of turmoil, signal fires being lit on the summit of the hill as a call to arms. That clan motto, "Craig Elachie" eventually evolving into the clan war cry, "Stand Fast Craigelachie".
Lady Butler's painting was intended not just as a tribute to the gallantry of Scottish soldiers generally, but more particularly to the Grant family's tradition of military service during the 19th century, hence the painting's title, "Stand Fast Craigelachie", the battle cry of the Grant family.
PROVENANCE: Mellors & Kirk, Nottingham, 16 September 2015, lot 872 (part), a family group of orders, decorations and medals to the Grant and Brooke families."‘Stand Fast Craigellachie’ by Lady Elizabeth Butler, 1902, depicting an incident involving the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders on the North West Frontier of India in 1895. It is a typically romantic image of highland heroism by one of the best-known military artists of the Victorian period. The title ‘Stand Fast Craigellachie’ is the traditional motto of Clan Grant. The central figure is believed to be Lieutenant John Patrick Grant and the action is thought to have taken place during the Chitral campaign."
