CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS
707
Pair: Private S. Dooley, Royal Marine Light Infantry
BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (Ch.15817 Pte., R.M.L.I.)
1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45, these unnamed; National Shell Filling Factory No. 6, Chilwell, brass
tokens (2), obverse stamped, ‘The V.C. Factory 1915-1918’, reverse numbered, ‘13707’ and ‘14502’, pierced; Prize
Medal, silver, inscribed, ‘Ambulance 1st Prize July 26th 1894’, ‘E.C.V.F.B.’ and ‘Branchman Thomas Moore’, buckle on
ribbon’; other medals and badges (8), two enamelled, very fine and better (16) £80-100
W.W.2 medals in card forwarding box to ‘Mrs J. Boyd, Sunningdene, Plant St., Cheadle, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.’
The National Shell Filling Factory No.6, at Chilwell was created in 1915. By the end of the war it had fitted high explosive into some
19 million shells - approximately 50% of all shells fired. The workers, many of them women, were known as ‘Chilwell Canaries’ due to
the tendency for the worker’s skin to turn yellow because of the chemicals employed. A substantial part of the factory was destroyed in
an explosion on 1 July 1918 and 137 people were killed. Following the explosion it was suggested that the Factory might be awarded a
‘collective’ Victoria Cross. Although this came to nothing, the factory subsequently became known as the ‘V.C. Factory’.
708
Pair: Private H. Coulston, Huntingdonshire Cyclist’s Battalion
BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (1680 Pte., Hunts. Cyc. Bn.) about very fine, scarce (2) £70-90
709
Pair: Private J. L. Holmes, 54th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, who was killed in action at Fromelles on the
Somme in July 1916: as such his remains may well be among those recently disinterred from a mass grave for further
investigation and reburial in Fromelles Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery
BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (4305 Pte. J. L. Holmes, 54 Bn. A.I.F.), good very fine (2) £200-250
James Leslie Holmes, a wheelwright from Murwillumbah, New South Wales, enlisted in September 1915 and was embarked for Egypt
with the 2nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force in H.M.A.T. Aeneas that December. Having then transferred to the 54th Battalion in
February 1916, he was embarked for France, where, on 19 July, he was killed in action at Fromelles on the Somme, his unit’s first
major action on the Western Front and one that resulted in 65% casualties. He was 22 years of age.
There the story might well have ended, but for news received from Germany, Holmes’ name appearing on a “Death List” submitted to
the Royal Prussian War Office (Medical Section) in Berlin in early August 1916, on which he is confirmed as having been killed at
Fromelles on 19 July. Then in 1917 his identity disc was returned by the Germans, official records confirming that it was sent back to
Holmes’ next of kin that June.
Meanwhile, however, since Holmes had no known grave - his name was commemorated on V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery
Memorial after the War - it is likely his remains were among those of several hundred Australian troops buried in mass graves by the
Germans after the battle. This, then, places him in the midst of a well-publicised modern day investigation to try and identify some of
these fallen, around 250 bodies having been disinterred for possible identification - that investigation now nears completion and the
first of the reburials in Fromelles Wood Military Cemetery took place in January 2010.
710
BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDAL PAIRS (3) (Lieut. A. E. Dutton; 2793 Gnr. J. Bullivant, R.A.; M1-5805 Pte. D. W. Maple, A.S.
C.) last pair heavily worn
FRANCE AND GERMANY STAR; DEFENCE MEDAL (2); WAR MEDAL 1939-45 (2); ROYAL AIR FORCES EX-POW ASSOCIATION MEDAL, uniface,
51mm., gilt base metal, with neck cravat; U.S.S.R., 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMED FORCES MEDAL 1988
BESTOWAL DOCUMENT: Legion of Honour, Chevalier, to Francis Edmund Leslie Wocke, French Consul, Madras, dated 28
December 1929; MAPS (9) various locations, Bombay, India, and Belgium and France, some damage to these; medals
nearly very fine and better except where stated (lot) £80-100
A. E. Dutton was appointed a Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps on 2 April 1918.
Private Dan. W. Maple, A.S.C., entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 9 November 1914 and was entitled to a 1914 Star; with
copied m.i.c.
711
Pair: Private C. M. McAlister, 2nd South African Infantry, who served in France and was wounded in action and taken
prisoner-of-war
BRITISH WAR AND BILINGUAL VICTORY MEDALS (Pte., 2nd S.A.I.) very fine (2) £80-100
Charles Magowan McAlister was born in Belfast, Ireland. A Fitter by occupation, he attested for the 1st South African Infantry Brigade
on 20 February 1917, aged 19 years. He arrived in England in April 1917 and entered France on 21 June 1917. He joined ‘D’
Company 2nd South African Infantry on 15 July 1917. He was wounded in action - suffering a gunshot wound to the leg, and was
taken prisoner-of-war on 24 March 1918. At the end of the war he was released and was returned to South Africa in April 1919, being
discharged on 25 May 1919. With copied service papers.
712
Six: Stoker 1st Class R. C. Butt, Royal Navy
NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE 1915-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1936-1939 (KX.75763 Sto. 1, R.N.); 1939-45 STAR; ATLANTIC STAR; ITALY
STAR; WAR MEDAL 1939-45; ROYAL NAVY L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (KX.75763 Sto. 1, H.M.S. Saladin) mounted as worn,
good very fine (6) £160-200
H.M.S. Saladin was an ‘Admiralty S’ Class destroyer launched in February 1919.
www.dnw.co.uk
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