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Auction: 20003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 525

The mounted group of thirteen miniature dress medals worn by Major D. W. Gumbley, Royal Engineers, Indian Civil Service, Director of Civil Aviation and Fuel, Palestine, late Inspector General of Posts and Telegraphs and Director of Aviation, Iraq

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 1st Type, Civil Division, C.B.E. Badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 1st Type, Military Division, O.B.E. Badge; Imperial Service Order, G.V.R, silver and enamel; Kaisar-i-Hind, G.V.R., silver; 1914 Star; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine; Delhi Durbar 1911; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Iraq, Kingdom, Order of Radifan, Badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Iraq, Active Service Medal, mounted as worn, good very fine, in their Spink & Son, 5-7 King Street leather case of issue (13)

C.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1932.

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 March 1919.

I.S.O. London Gazette 4 June 1917.

Order of Rafidian London Gazette 2 November 1934.

Douglas William Gumbley was born on 14 August 1880 in Guernsey. His father was a civil engineer employed by Siemens. Douglas decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and left the island to study at the United Westminster and Battersea Technical College, where he qualified.

In September 1898 he joined the Indian Civil Service. The British Government, wanting to open communications with India, had at an earlier date induced the Indo-European Telegraph Company to establish telegraph communications across Europe and Asia; however when they had reached Teheran they were not prepared to go any further. The Indian Government formed its own department to complete the work through Baluchistan to India. It was to this department that Douglas Gumbley was first attached.

In 1904 he was engaged in surveying the territory for the new land line from Karachi to Teheran and was responsible for the construction of that line almost to Teheran.

In 1914 he went to Basra in the cable ship The Patrick Stewart, in which he had occasionally helped as a submarine cable technician, and joined the British Army. At first attached to the Signal Corps in a civilian capacity, he was soon after gazetted as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, later promoted to Captain and Major.

Before any civil administration was formed in Mesopotamia the country was run by British Forces under the League of Nations mandate. On being demobilized in 1922 he was made director of Posts and Telegraphs, Iraq. In 1923 he initiated the Overland Mail System via Damascus and Haifa. The desert between Baghdad (where Gumbley was) and Damascus was considered uncrossable. An Australian named Nairn was buying old Model T Fords in Haifa and selling them in Iraq, and Gumbley persuaded him to attempt the crossing from Damascus to Baghdad, which he successfully achieved. As a result the new mail system was established and mail from England could arrive some eight or nine days earlier than had previously been possible.

Normal letters were too expensive for mass use by the newly developing air services in the Middle East. Gumbley realised the need for a light weight form of specific size and weight. For this purpose he designed and had printed by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co. Ltd an Air Mail Letter Card. The card weighing just under 4 grammes was registered at Stationer’s Hall on 11 February 1933. On 15 July the world’s first Air Mail Letter Card was issued and the cost of sending mail by air was considerably reduced.

Gumbley transferred to Palestine in 1935, where he became Director of Civil Aviation and where he is chiefly remembered for his energetic promotion of a new airport at Lydda, which he also designed.

In October 1947 he joined Iraq Petroleum Co. Ltd., in charge of Aviation and Communication branches. He retired to the Isle of Wight in 1957 and died in February 1973.

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Sold for
£280

Starting price
£230