Description
Physical description
Gold enamelled pin-back badge bearing a design of five red and gold enamelled arrows upon which is superimposed a gold rimmed red banner.
Label
The Order of the Yoke and Arrows was established by General Franco on 1 October 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, as the highest award for military and civilian aid to his cause. The order was further confirmed by a decree of 27th January 1943 as an award for leaders of the Falangist movement. The order comprises four classes and its motto is CAESARIS CAESARI DEI DEO ('Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's'). This particular example, together with a signed photograph of General Franco was presented to Miss Dorothy Watson for her part in the 'cloak and dagger' plot hatched in London by Franco supports to smuggle him into Spain on the eve of the Civil War. The scheme seems to have been conceived, in part, by Major Hugh Pollard, an author and well known court expert witness on ballistics, who decided he would have the best chance of success if he went as a tourist accompanied by his daughter Diana and one of her girlfriends, Dorothy Watson. The party, accompanied by a Spanish marquis, set out from Croydon in a chartered aircraft flown by a Captain C W H Bebb. They landed to refuel at Bordeaux where Pollard had a meeting with a number of French supporters. The party went from Las Palmas to Tenerife by boat. Franco was staying in the country and Pollard smuggled messages to him to let him know that there was an aircraft waiting for him at Las Palmas.. The authorities briefly detained the plane but later released it. The murder of the Military Governor of Las Palmas provided Franco with cover to cross by boat to attend the funeral. Pollard claims that he went to the airport to make the necessary arrangements and that he later heard that Captain Bebb had taken off flying Franco, by stages, to Tetuan.
History note
Lot 330 in Glendining's Sale of 28th March 2001.The Order of the Yoke and Arrows was established by General Franco on 1 October 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, as the highest award for military and civilian aid to his cause. The order was further confirmed by a decree of 27th January 1943 as an award for leaders of the Falangist movement. The order comprises four classes and its motto is CAESARIS CAESARI DEI DEO ('Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's'). This particular example, together with a signed photograph of General Franco was presented to Miss Dorothy Watson for her part in the 'cloak and dagger' plot hatched in London by Franco supports to smuggle him into Spain on the eve of the Civil War. The scheme seems to have been conceived, in part, by Major Hugh Pollard who decided he would have the best chance of success if he went as a tourist accompanied by his daughter Diana and one of her girlfriends, Dorothy Watson. The party, accompanied by a Spanish marquis, set out from Croydon in a chartered aircraft flown by a Captain C W H Bebb. They landed to refuel at Bordeaux where Pollard had a meeting with a number of French supporters. The party went from Las Palmas to Tenerife by boat. Franco was staying in the country and Pollard smuggled messages to him to let him know that there was an aircraft waiting for him at Las Palmas.. The authorities briefly detained the plane but later released it. The murder of the Military Governor of Las Palmas provided Franco with cover to cross by boat to attend the funeral. Pollard claims that he went to the airport to make the necessary arrangements and that he later heard that Captain Bebb had taken off flying Franco, by stages, to Tetuan. (See papers transferred to Documents for more information on Dorothy Watson's role). Displayed in the Spanish Civil War Exhibition 2001-2002