˜THE SILVER-GILT MOUNTED PRESENTATION MAMELUKE SWORD TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL GEORGE SIR RONALD SCOBIE, K.B.E., C.B., M.C. BY THE GREEK ARMY, BY WILKINSON, LONDON SILVER HALLMARKS, 1946, with curved polished blade double-edged towards the point, etched with olive fruit and foliage, palmette, the presentation inscription and the Patriotic inscription ~ΈΛΛΑΔΙ ΓΑΡ ΣΠΕΥΔΟΝΤΕΣ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΘΕΙΝΑΙ?~, rectangular ricasso etched ~Wilkinson~ on the back-edge, silver-gilt hilt comprising cross-guard cast and chased with olive foliage in low relief, decorated in the centre with a classical profile bust on one face and with the crowned Royal cypher ~GRVI~ enclosed by the Most Noble Order of the Garter on the other, back-strap chased with foliage, a pair of ivory grip-scales (small ages cracks) retained by a pair of rivets with gilt heads, and with its original knot, in its scabbard with silver-gilt mounts cast and chased with palmettes and strapwork in low relief against a punched ground comprising chape, middle-band with a ring for suspension, applied in enamel with the Most Honourable Order of the Bath on one face and the Greek Order of George 1st, gold cross (military division) on the other, locket with a further ring, decorated in blue enamel with the dates 1944-46 on a scroll on one face and a military emblem on the other, and remaining in very fine condition throughout, 82.0 cm blade¦¦Sir Ronald Mackenzie Scobie (1893-1969) was educated as a scholar at Cheltenham College and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in February 1914. He excelled at all sports and shortly before the outbreak of war played rugby for Scotland against England, Ireland, and Wales. ¦¦Scobie was sent out to France in October 1914. Though wounded shortly after his arrival, he recovered to fight in the trenches for the remainder of the war, being twice mentioned in dispatches and winning the Military Cross. Promoted captain in 1917, he received his brevet majority just two years later. In September 1920 he returned to England, where for four years he commanded a company at Woolwich. From 1927 to 1931 he was a staff captain, and later a brigade major, at Aldershot, before spending three years overseas as director of military artillery at the Royal Military Academy, Australia, during which he was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel. On 9 February 1927 he married Joan Duncan (b. 1904/5), daughter of William Henry Sidebotham, a solicitor, of Farnham, Surrey and they later had a daughter.¦¦By 1939 Scobie was in London, as a full colonel and assistant adjutant-general at the War Office, and on the outbreak of war was made deputy director of mobilization, a role at which he excelled. In late spring 1940 he went out to the Middle East to serve as deputy adjutant-general on General Wavell~s staff before being appointed, in August, as a brigadier, general staff, in the Sudan. There, under General Sir William Platt, he helped plan the northern arm of the massive pincer that broke Italian military power in east Africa. Scobie with Platt captured Agordat in February 1941, broke the kernel of Italian resistance at Keren in March 1941, and finally took the whole of Eritrea. In the opinion of General Sir Frank Messervy, a fellow officer and friend, it was Scobie, through his diplomatic handling of two quarrelling divisional commanders and his insistence on persevering with the attack, who saw the crucial battle of Keren through to its victorious end.¦¦In October 1941, a month before Sir Claude Auchinleck launched his ~Crusader~ offensive against Rommel, Scobie, now a major-general, was appointed to succeed General Moreshead as commander of the garrison of Tobruk. After leading the 70th British division in by sea to relieve the Australian defenders, he and his men held the fortress in the face of furious enemy assault and even broke out from the town to make contact, if only for a few hours, with Auchinleck~s advance troops. Besieged again, with only forty-eight hours of artillery ammunition left, Scobie kept attacking as the battle of Sidi Razegh raged to the south. The garrison held out for another two weeks before finally being relieved. For his efforts in Eritrea and at Tobruk he was appointed OBE in 1941 and CB in 1942.¦¦From February to August 1942, for the duration of Rommel~s counter-offensive, Scobie was once again on the staff as deputy adjutant-general. His next posting was as general officer commanding another beleaguered outpost, this time the island of Malta. There he remained, blockaded by sea and under attack from the air, until the siege was finally lifted with the conclusion of the north African campaign. He returned to Cairo in 1943 as chief of staff to General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, commander-in-chief Middle East, where, among other tasks, he helped plan the invasion of Sicily and amphibious operations in the Aegean.¦¦In the following year Scobie was given command of the British force due for dispatch to Greece to keep order, following the German withdrawal, until a constitutional administration could be established. When he and his force duly arrived in October 1944 they found the country in a state of complete disorder and on the verge of widespread civil war. Members of EAM, the communist-led movement of national liberation, and of its military wing, ELAS, were threatening to seize power and already occupied much of Athens and the surrounding countryside. Supported by the British government, Scobie declared publicly that all guerrilla groups must disband, that he would stand by the returned Greek government in exile, led by Georgeios Papandreou, until a legal armed force was behind it and free elections could be held, and that he would protect it against any coup d~état. EAM denied the charge that they were preparing a coup, but the crisis quickly reached boiling point.¦¦In December 1944 heavy fighting broke out in Athens between ELAS and British troops. At one point British and Greek government forces seemed in danger of being overwhelmed. Reinforcements were sent, with a corps commander to take operational control, enabling Scobie to assume overall command. Only after a visit to Athens by Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden late in December did the civil strife there begin to draw to a close. Papandreou resigned, a regency was declared, and a new cabinet formed, more acceptable to EAM. But it took forty days of bitter fighting before Scobie and four ELAS delegates signed a military truce, on 11 January 1945, and disarmament of the guerrillas could start.¦¦Scobie~s fine efforts in Greece were recognized by his appointment to KBE in 1945. Most Greeks, too, held him in high esteem, perhaps unusually for a commander of foreign troops engaged as a temporary force of occupation, but their affection and respect were genuine. He received the freedom of Athens and the grand medal of the municipality, and was decorated with the grand cross of George I of Greece, and whenever in public was greeted by cheers and cries of ~Scobie! Scobie! Scobie!~. He remained in command in Greece until 1946. Abridged from the Oxford Dictionary of Biography, accessed October 2022. ¦¦
