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Auction: 25003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 190

The 1918 D.S.O. group of four awarded to Major M. H. Roffey, Tank Corps, late Welsh Regiment, a Mechanical Engineer who was instrumental in the establishment of Hong Kong University's Department of Mechanical Engineering

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar; 1914-15 Star (Capt. M. H. Roffey. Welsh R.); British War and Victory Medals (Major M. H. Roffey.), with M.I.D. oak leaves, mounted for wear, the gilding to the first somewhat discoloured, otherwise good very fine (4)

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

M.I.D. London Gazette 25 May 1917, 21 December 1917, 10 July 1919.

Myles Herbert Roffey was born at Braintree, Essex on 15 February 1883, the son of John and Martha Roffey. Commissioned Second Lieutenant on 25 March 1915 with the 19th (Glamorgan Pioneers) Battalion, The Welsh Regiment. Roffey was further advanced Captain on 1 July 1915 and entered the war on 5 December 1915 in France with that rank.

Finally promoted to the rank of Captain on 27 September 1916 at some stage he was transferred to the Tank Corps, likely as a result of his engineering skill. Relinquishing his commission with the Tank Corps on 12 February 1920 Roffey took up a teaching role in Honk Kong, his medals being sent to him at the University of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong University's Department of Mechanical Engineering website notes the following of Roffey's role in the founding of their department:

'By the 1920's, these laboratories had become overcrowded and the noise during laboratory work was a great nuisance to the rest of the University. As a result, funds were raised to erect two new buildings along the north side of Pokfulam Road next to the present Belcher's Garden, namely, the Ho Tung Engineering Workshop (Fig. 5) opened in 1925, and the Peel Engineering Laboratory (Fig. 6) opened in 1934. These were well-equipped with practical training facilities for students especially in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering disciplines. For this reason, the B. Sc. Eng. programmes in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering were given full accreditation by the IMechE and IEE in the 1930's. It is thought that Prof. Smith's MIMechE qualification, as well as the MIEE qualification of other Faculty members such as Prof. A.G. Warren and Prof. M.H. Roffey, might also have been instrumental. In the pre-war era, no ICE or IStructE qualifications could be noted on the staff list of the Faculty, and the programme in Civil Engineering was not on the accredited list of these two U.K. institutions'

It is not clear whether Roffey was in Hong Kong during the Second World War and suffered through internment by the Japanese. He did however emigrate to Canada at some stage after the war, dying at Victoria, British Colombia on 6 August 1966; sold together with copied research.

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Estimate
£1,000 to £1,400

Starting price
£800