Military Cross : Captain L H Cecil, King's Royal Rifle Corps

Military Cross GVR. Engraved reverse with the recipient's details. Contained in the original case of issue.

Associated with the service of Lawrence Henry Cecil who was born at Parkes, NSW in 1888 and moved to Sydney at a young age. He travelled to England in 1911 and joined Sir Frank Bensons Shakespere Company at Stratford on Avon. At the out break of the First World War he enlisted in the British Army being commissioned with the 60th Rifles of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and awarded the Military Cross for action at Fremicourt on 24 March 1918. Cecil returned to Australia after the war and returned to the stage. During the Second World War, in September 1940, Cecil left Australia for the Middle East as a war correspondent in charge of an Australian Broadcasting Commission mobile broadcasting field unit. The unit made voice reports about the fighting and also recorded interviews with Australian soldiers and the sounds of battle. The news reports by Cecil and fellow correspondent Chester Wilmot were the first voice reports by ABC correspondents overseas. In addition to recording reports in the field, the ABC field unit also operated a radio station for receiving news broadcasts from Australia and relaying them to Australian troops. The unit covered the war in Egypt, Palestine, Lybia, Greece and Syria until March 1942. He Died in 1968

• British War Medal 1914-20 : Captain L H Cecil, King's Royal Rifle Corps
• Victory Medal : Captain L H Cecil, King's Royal Rifle Corps
• Africa Star : L H Cecil, Australian War Correspondent
• British War Medal 1939-45 : L H Cecil, Australian War Correspondent
• Australia Service Medal : L H Cecil, Australian War Correspondent