IN July 1919, Colonel Thord-Gray was awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of St Anna 2nd Class with sword for ‘military bravery that prevented encirclement of his division and enabled it to withdraw’.
In August of that year, Thord survived being shot by a Cossack guard. Ignoring doctors’ orders to travel abroad for rest and recovery, Thord secured discharge from hospital and continued to lead his division from a stretcher, his wounds still open.
By this time Thord had taken two Red Army prisoners, Matfee and Ivan, to act as his servants. They served Thord loyally throughout the rest of the war – and even saved his life when he had been abandoned behind enemy lines by his stretcher bearers. In November 1919 Thord was made major-general in the White Russian Army.
This chapter also includes Thord’s first-hand account of the fall of Vladivostok. Once again Matfee, Red prisoner-of-war and Thord’s servant, interceded on his behalf. After the fall of Vladivostok, Thord was thanked by Red Army commander Colonel Krakovetsky for ‘the kind and humane attitude’ he had shown towards Red prisoners of war.