A superb original Second World War U.S. Legion of Merit – Degree of Commander award certificate, issued in Washington on 1 November 1945 to General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, K.C.B., D.S.O., O.B.E., Adjutant General to the British Army — one of the most senior British Army figures of the war.
A highly displayable wartime award document, bearing the printed Legion of Merit decoration at the top, embossed seal, and handwritten signatures of Harry S. Truman as Commander-in-Chief and Robert P. Patterson as Secretary of War.
A powerful crossover piece for collectors of WWII militaria, Allied command history, U.S. presidential material, British Army ephemera and high-grade military award documents.
The Recipient
General Sir Ronald Adam was a major British Army officer of the Second World War, serving as Adjutant-General from 1941 to the end of the war and playing an important role in the organisation and personnel structure of the wartime British Army. The Legion of Merit was a U.S. military decoration awarded in degrees to foreign military personnel, with the Commander degree reserved for very senior foreign officers.
Provenance
The document is part of an historical family-retained archive with strong military associations, linking several notable British Army families of the late nineteenth and early-mid twentieth centuries.
The archive was discovered by the vendor, preserved among a collection of papers found in a Second World War officer’s footlocker associated with Lieutenant-General Sir (Frank) Noel Mason-MacFarlane (1889–1953). The papers appear to have descended through the Mason-MacFarlane family to Noel’s son Ian Will Mason-MacFarlane and Ian’s wife Muriel Paterson Hall, known as Mona, who was born in Galashiels, Scotland, in 1923 and died in 2016.
Also found within the footlocker were several original warrants and awards to General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, who was linked to the Mason-MacFarlane family through his marriage in 1915 to Anna Dorothy Pitman, sister of Islay Pitman, the wife of Lieutenant-General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane.
Whilst the archive is documented by family descent to Mona Hall, who died in 2016, the subsequent chain of custody is not known, but the footlocker and contents was later discovered during a house clearance, together with other related family and military papers from the same archive group. This is therefore a genuine document with established family provenance to 2016, later rediscovered as part of a house-clearance.
An Uncommon Document
This is not a common rank-and-file military document. It connects directly to:
Visual Appeal
This is a very displayable piece. Features include:
Condition
Please study the photographs carefully as they form part of the description. Visible condition points include:
A desirable original wartime document with honest age and strong visual presence.
A scarce opportunity to acquire a named WWII award certificate to a senior British general, connected to one of the most important Allied military honours issued by the United States.