Royal Humane Society, proficiency in swimming medallion, silver (2), the obverse exergue of...

Royal Humane Society, proficiency in swimming medallion, silver (2), the obverse exergue of first engraved ‘Highgate School, 1925’ and the edge engraved ‘N. Leitch’, in case of issue; he obverse exergue of second engraved ‘Oxford Military College 1889’ and the edge engraved ‘William Henry Luttman Johnson’, first extremely fine, last edge bruising, good fine (2) £80-£100 --- Neil Leitch (MA, BM, BCH, DTM&H, DPH, DIH) died ‘suddenly in La Palma, Canary Islands, on 17 June [1977]. He was only 67. He had served with distinction in the Colonial Medical Service in Nigeria and Mauritius, and more recently in the Department of Health and Social Security until his retirement. Neil Leitch was the son of a medical family: both his father and his mother were doctors. He took his arts degree from Merton College, Oxford, where he also got a half-blue for swimming for the university. After studying medicine at the Middlesex Hospital, he qualified in 1935 and then spent some time in the USA before the outbreak of the second world war. He saw service in troopships and later went to India with the West African Frontier Force and was in action with the Chindits in Burma, where he was mentioned is dispatches. This service with West Africans determined his decision to work in Nigeria after the war. He eventually became adviser on health to the Government of Northern Nigeria after serving as deputy to Sir Samuel Manuwa, inspector-general of the Federal Medical Service. After the end of his service in Northern Nigeria he was adviser to the Department of Health of Mauritius for some years. In 1966 he settled in England again and joined the staff of the Ministry of Health, where he worked mainly on subjects related to hospital building. In 1975 he retired in the rank of senior medical officer to settle in the Canaries.’ (British Medical Journal, 16 July 1977 refers) William Henry Luttman-Johnson was born in Northchapel, Sussex, in August 1872. He was educated at the Oxford Military College, where he represented the school at swimming and football (a photographic image of recipient as part of the Football XI included with the lot). Luttman-Johnson was commissioned from the 3rd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment into the York and Lancaster Regiment in December 1895. He was posted for service with the Regiment in the East Indies in February 1897, and died of disease at the Station Hospital, Agra, 25 March 1897. Luttman-Johnson was buried in the Cantonement Cemetery, Agra. Sold with copied research.