Royal Scots Greys Regimental Rifle Championship Prize Medal, gold (9ct, 11.32g), engraved '1...

Royal Scots Greys Regimental Rifle Championship Prize Medal, gold (9ct, 11.32g), engraved ‘1928 Winner Lt. H. R. Mackeson’; together with three gold (10 ct) evening-dress waistcoat buttons, nearly extremely fine £100-£140 --- Sir Harry Ripley Mackeson, 1st Bt., was born in Folkestone, Kent, on 25 May 1905, the elder son of Henry Mackeson Esq., the founder of the famous Mackeson's Brewery of Hythe: their Mackeson’s Stout quickly become very popular and was bought by Whitbread in 1929. He was educated at Rugby and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being awarded the Sword of Honour in 1925, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys on 3 September 1925 in India. Promoted Lieutenant on 3 September 1927, he was admitted to Freedom of the City of London Company of Grocers on 2 March 1928, and served as Adjutant from 10 March 1933 to 20 January 1936. Promoted Captain on 1 October 1936, he carried Princess Arthur of Connaught’s Coronet at the 1937 Coronation, and later served as Brigade Major in Egypt from 1938 to 1940. He served during the Second World War as a General Staff Officer, Staff Headquarters, Royal Armoured Corps, and as a Brigadier commanded the Armoured Brigade after D-Day that was involved in heavy fighting in the advance from Normandy to Ghent. Mackeson was elected to the House of Commons as Conservative Member of Parliament for Hythe in 1945, and hedl the seat (renamed Folkestone and Hythe in 1950) until 1959. He served under Winston Churchill as a Lord of the Treasury from 1951 to 1952 and Deputy Chief Whip, and then as Secretary for Overseas Trade from 1952 to 1953. For his political and public service he was created a Baronet of Hythe in the County of Kent in 1954. He died on 25 January 1964 in King Edward VII Hospital for Officers in London and was succeeded in the Baronetcy by his son Rupert (the author Rupert Collens).