Spinks medal case Major Gamble DSO. Royal Berkshire Regiment. Retired as Brigadier General, Commanding Officer. Fascinating history.

RICHARD NARRIEN Gamble, Major, was born at 51 Queens Strret, Edinburgh 10 March 1860, son of Lieutenant General D J Gamble, CB, and Mrs M E Gamble.

He was educated at Blair Lodge, and RMC, Sandhurst, and was commissioned in the 10th Lincolnshire Regiment 13 August 1879; was Adjutant in the same regiment 30 November 1881 to 20 November 1884.

He served in the Bechuanaland Expedition, 1884-85; became Captain 3 August 1887; passed the Staff College, 1890-91; was ADC to GOC, Scottish District, 16 January 1894 to 30 September 1895, and DAAG, Cork District, 2 October 1895 to 6 January 1898.

He took part in the Egyptian Campaign, 1898-99; was present at the operations at Atbara and Khartoum; was Mentioned in Dispatches [London Gazette, 30 September 1898, and on another occasion]

Awarded the Medjidie, 3rd Class, and the British Medal and Egyptian Medal with three clasps.

He was promoted Major, Royal Berkshire Regiment, 3 November 1900, and served in the South African War, 1900-1, as DAAG, Mounted Infantry, 7 April to 2 November 1900, and on the General Staff; during operations in the Orange Free State, including action at Houtnek (Thoba Mountain); taking part in the operations in the Transvaal in May and June, 1900, including actions near Johannesburg and Diamond Hill; during operations in Orange River Colony, including action at Wittebergen. He was Mentioned in Dispatches [London Gazette, 10 September 1901]

He received the Queen’s Medal with four clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 27 September 1901]: “Richard Narrien Gamble, Major, Royal Berkshire Regiment. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa”. The Insignia were presented by the King 29 October 1901; the Warrant sent 18 January 1902.

He was DAQMG, 6th Division, 2nd Army Corps, 1 January to 12 May 1903, and was Major, Second-in-Command, 2nd Royal Berkshire Regiment, 1905-8; promoted Lieutenant Colonel 30 April 1907; commanding the same regiment, 1908-11.

He was promoted Colonel 19 July 1911; was GSO, 1st Grade, 6th (Poona) Division, 1912-14. At the outbreak of the European War, 1914, he was sent to Mesopotamia as GSO, 6th Division, and was promoted Brigadier General commanding 17th Brigade in Mesopotamia, 1915, where he was thrice Mentioned in Dispatches for valuable service, and created CB in 1915. He was transferred to India in 1916, where he served as Deputy-Adjutant-General at Army Headquarters, Simla, and subsequently as Inspector of Volunteers in India and Burma. Brigadier General Gamble retired 13 October 1918.

He married, in 1901, Audrey Nona Bean, daughter of Francis A Bevan, DL, JP, late Chairman of Barclay and Company……………………..Source: DSO recipients (VC and DSO Book)

It is interesting to note on the South African Officers Medal Rolls, he is a senior officer to Guy George Edgerton Wylly who was to receive the Victoria Cross in that same campaign.

Lieutenant Guy George Edgerton Wylly
On 23 November his VC was gazetted, with the following citation

Tasmanian Imperial Bushman, Lieutenant Guy G. E. Wylly On the 1st September, 1900, near Warm Bad, Lieutenant Wylly was with the advanced scouts of a foraging party. They were passing through a narrow gorge, very rocky and thickly wooded, when the enemy in force suddenly opened fire at short range from hidden cover, wounding six out of the party of eight, including Lieutenant Wylly. That Officer, seeing that one of his men was badly wounded in the leg, and that his horse was shot, went back to the man’s assistance, made him take his (Lieutenant Wylly’s) horse, and opened fire from behind a rock to cover the retreat of the others, at the imminent risk of being cut off himself. Colonel T. E. Hickman, D.S.O., considers that the gallant conduct of Lieutenant Wylly saved Corporal Brown from being killed or captured, and that his subsequent action in firing to cover the retreat was “instrumental in saving others of his men from death or capture.”

In 1921, we find him living at Gorse Cottages, Hook Heath Road, Woking, Surrey. And noted as Brigadier General General Staff British Army (Retired).

He died in 1937 and his Daily Telegraph obituary is in the photographs.

The case is named in gold leaf although some has worn away. There is a small compartment under the main section to house his miniatures.

There is damage to the spine of the case due to its being opened may times over the years but it is still attached.