Case length: 46cm (18.2in)
Silver. Set of twelve Edward VII place card holders in the form of the Roman numeral XX (representing the regimental number in the order of precedence of the line infantry) and the fusilier grenade badge of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Maker’s mark of Grey and Co., Birmingham. Hallmarked 1904. Contained in gilt-tooled red Morocco case with embossed Inscription 'Presented by J. Collis Browne 6th Batt'n Lancs Fusiliers, on Joining Jan'y 1904’.
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Major John Collis-Browne (1885-1968) was the son of Major William Alfred Collis-Browne, and the grandson of an army surgeon who invented ‘Dr J. Collis Browne's Mixture’ - a wildly popular 19th century cure-all made from chloroform, morphine, cannabis and laudanum. He was commissioned into the 6th Militia Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers in 1904. In 1914 he joined the 2nd Battalion in France just in time for the Christmas Truce in which the 2nd Battalion participated. In May 1915 he was present in the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April- 25 May) where poison gas was used for the first time. A photograph in the Imperial War Museum collection shows Collis-Browne and six others captioned as the survivors of a gas attack on 2 May. On the final day of the German offensive, Collis-Browne was commanding ‘A’ Company in the support trenches, when he was was sent to reinforce 2nd Royal Irish Regiment in a moment of crisis. He was severely wounded soon after. In July 1916 the West Surrey Times reported that Captain Collis-Browne had been wounded for the third time and that he was in hospital at Oxford, contrary to a rumour that he had died of wounds received the previous weekend in Flanders, and another, that his leg had been amputated. He was promoted Major in the 4th Battalion and in 1918 married Kathleen Lucas of Milton Court, Milton. In later life he was Hon Treasurer of the South of England Coursing Club and Hon Sec of the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club, Richmond.
"Officers of the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers after the gas attack of 2nd May 1915 at Ypres: Second Lieutenant George C. Martin, Captain John Collis-Browne, Captain A. Pakenham, Lieutenant Victor F. S. Hawkins, Major Christopher Joseph Griffin, Lieutenant William Tyrrell (Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers), Second Lieutenant Alan David MacDonald."