Great War VC at DNW

The outstanding Great War, Final Advance to Victory, VC group of five awarded to 21-year-old Lancashire Lad Private James Towers, 2nd Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) was sold for £248,000 (includes Buyer’s Premium of 24%) by Dix Noonan Webb in the auction of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. Towers, with utter disregard for his own safety, volunteered to carry a vital message, under continuous heavy fire, to a stranded platoon at Mericourt, in October 1918, whilst in the knowledge that five of his comrades had already been in killed in turn.

Also from WWI there were various medals from the Collection of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. One lot was a Western Front MC group of four awarded to

Second Lieutenant HAIB Stokes, 3rd Battalion, attached 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, late Royal Fusiliers, who died in November 1918 of the wounds he received whilst in the act of winning the MC. The medals included the Military Cross,

GVR, 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory Medals. They sold for £1,240. Another Great War MC group of three awarded to Major HJ Bennett, 2/4th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who was taken prisoner in March 1918, sold for £1,364. He was captured near Marcelçave on 30 March 1918, whilst attempting to rejoin his men in the trenches before the village which, unknown to him, were no longer being fought for. The medals included the Military Cross, GVR; British War and Victory Medals, an unofficial St John badge, together with a Buckingham Palace letter for returned prisoners of war and a photocopied group photograph of Bennett and other officers of the 2/4th Battalion.

Of course, many of the men who served in WWI also took part in the Boer War, some 15 years previously. Here was four medals to Major SR Field, Royal Artillery, late Volunteer Company, Oxfordshire Light Infantry. The lot included a Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902 medal with three clasps, ‘Cape Colony’, ‘Orange Free State’ and ‘South Africa 1902’; British War and Victory Medals and a Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19. They sold for £520.80.

Next we have a Great War ‘Kut-al-Amara’ DCM. awarded to Sergeant TW Armitt, 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. The battalion history records that he was wounded during the capture of One Tower Hill on 31 May 1915 and that he led ‘R’ Company (67 men) on their march into captivity. He was captured at Kut and died in captivity at Afiun Qarahisar on 4 November 1916. He is commemorated by name in the Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq. The DCM sold for £1,612.

A pair from the Indian Mutiny now, awarded to Sergeant William Read, 52nd Light Infantry. The medals were the Indian Mutiny 1857-59, with one clasp for ‘Delhi’; Army Long Service and Good Conduct medal, 3rd issue, small letter reverse, mounted on a contemporary silver brooch pin as worn. They sold for £545.60. Another pair that caught the eye were awarded to Private A Parker, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry. They were an Egypt and Sudan 1882-89 medal, no clasp; and the Khedive’s Star 1884-6, in great condition with a few marks. They sold for £545.60 as well.

Let’s finish now with five medals to Bandmaster HA Kenney, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. These included Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62 medal with one clasp, ‘Cyprus’; Coronation 1953; Army Long Service and Good Conduct, 1st issue; together with mounted set of five miniature dress medals. They went for £1,364. ■