The 'Man Who Made Ipoh' Great War Medal pair to legendary Irish colonial officer and 'Tin Mining' entrepreneur: Driver John Bourke Massy Leech, French Red Cross late British Red Cross Society, late Federated Malay States Civil Service

- British War Medal. Silver issue (J. B. M. Leech.)
- Interallied Victory Medal (J. B. M. Leech.)

The medals are sold together with:

- Official named card box of issue (a/f) for the medals
- Ink named brown manila envelopes for the respective medals
- Original long un-creased lengths of bright silk moire medal ribands

Soft-copies of the recipients Medal Index Card & Medal Roll extract pages will be forwarded to the buyer, gratis

Medals verification: Both medals verified as the recipients full & only medal entitlements per the respective campaign medal rolls of the British Committee of the French Red Cross (ref WO 329/2324), wherein the recipient is shown as holding the appointment of 'Driver' and having served in France between August 1915 to February 1916. A note under the remarks column in the medal roll records the recipient as being deceased by the time the medal roll was compiled & signed in, London, England, on, 24 February 1921

Important: John Bourke Massy Leech is confirmed having died during the Great War, on 1 December 1917

During his time in France, at a meeting of the National Imperial Association, Mr. J. B. M. Leech (Hon, Secy) claimed to have been a witness to German atrocities (reference 'Reading Standard' issue of 6 October 1917):

Quote,

"In opening the proceedings, Mr. Massey Leech gave a short account of the horrors of war which he had seen as a Red Cross orderly in Flanders with the British Red Cross ambulances and the French Red Cross in the Vosges. He had seen babies with their hands cut off by the Germans.

Unquote.

John Bourke Massy Leech son of Leech & Leech, was a native Ulsterman, from County Down, Ireland, where he was born in 1854

It was as a District Magistrate serving with the Federated Malay States Civil Service in Perak, that John Leech made his fame, and left his mark (including a street named in his memory 'Leech Street' in Ipoh), where he is credited with having been the modernizing influence, that brought order and development to the towns of Ipoh & Kampar. As testimony to the influence of District Magistrate Leech, there is a prolific number of official reports, and articles he published in the gazettes of the Federated Malay States, & far too many to quote or cite

The 'London and China Telegraph' issue of, 3 December 1917, contained the below following death notice:

Quote,

Leech. - On Dec. 1, suddenly, at 6, Campden-house terrace, Kensington, John Bourke Massey Leech, French Croix Rouge, late F.M.S. Civil Service, aged 63.

Unquote.

A choice and extremely desirable pair of medals to a colonial administrator and entrepreneur who laid the foundations for the modernisation of Ipoh, Malaysia

Condition: The medals virtually uncirculated & near Mint

Code: 21605