The Jack Russell Collection of Medals to the Gloucestershire Regiment

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.C. group of five awarded to Brevet Major G. B. Bosanquet, 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, who was wounded at Festubert in December 1914 and again in the attack on Aubers Ridge in May 1915, and was killed in action at Ovillers on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, the Battalion’s only fatal casualty that day

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse inscribed ‘Capt. G. B. Bosanquet. Gloucestershire Regt.’; 1914 Star (Lieut. G. B. Bosanquet. Glouc. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Bt. Major G. B. Bosanquet.); France, Third Republic, Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, gilt, and enamel, nearly extremely fine (5) £5,000-£7,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Russell Collection of Medals to the Gloucestershire Regiment.

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Collection

Collection of Medals to the Gloucestershire Regiment, Dix Noonan Webb, February 2016.

M.C. London Gazette 23 June 1915.

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 June and 22 June 1915.

Legion of Honour London Gazette 24 February 1916.

Graham Bromhead Bosanquet was born at Liandinabo, Herefordshire, on 17 November 1885, only son of Admiral Sir Day Hort Bosanquet, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., Royal Navy. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment on 18 February 1905, and transferred to the Regulars as a Second Lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment on 16 January 1907. Appointed Adjutant of the 7th (Blythswood) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, on 11 March 1914, he served with the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment during the Great War on the Western Front from 2 November 1914, and was wounded at Festubert on 21 December, on which date the Battalion was tasked with retaking trenches lost by the Indian Corps. The attack commenced at 3:00 p.m., and they had gained about 500 yards by dark, but at the cost of 16 other ranks killed; 6 officers and 86 other ranks wounded; and 1 officer and 94 other ranks missing. In his report on the auction, Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. Lovett wrote: ‘Captain and Acting Adjutant Bosanquet was invaluable in assisting to direct the companies in their advance under very heavy fire.’

Bosanquet was again wounded in the attack on Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915, and was awarded the Military Cross in June 1915, although no definitive citation for his M.C. has been traced. He was promoted Brevet Major on 21 April 1916, and was killed in action at Ovillers on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, whilst attached as Brigade Major to the 64th Infantry Brigade. He is buried in Gordon Dump Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boiselle, France, the 1st Battalion’s only fatal casualty on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Sold with a photographic image of the recipient; and copied research.