Six: Acting Warrant Officer Class 1 J. P. Ellis, Royal Irish Fusiliers, late Grenadier Guards

1914 Star (6310 C.S. Mjr. J. P. Ellis, 1/G. Gds.); British War Medal 1914-20 (6310 A.W.O. Cl. 1 J. P. Ellis, G. Gds.); Victory Medal 1914-19, this named to another recipient, a Private in the R.A.M.C.; Coronation 1902, the reverse field engraved, ‘No. 6310 Lce. Sergt. J. Ellis, King’s Coy. Gren. Gds.’ ; Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (6310 C.S. Mjr. J. P. Ellis, G. Gds.); Royal Victorian Medal, V.R., bronze, with 1st-type ‘E. May 1910 R.’ Bar ([Lce. Sergt.] J. P. Ellis, King’s Coy. [Gren.] Gds.), engraved naming partially lost as a result of edge bruising, mounted court-style with new ribands but original wearing pin, the Coronation and R.V.M. heavily polished, and the latter with refixed suspension and replacement suspension ring, thus fair, the remainder good very fine (6) £400-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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James Proctor, who was born in Slingsby, Yorkshire, was for many years a regular soldier in the Grenadiers. Present as a Lance-Corporal in Queen Victoria’s funeral party in February 1901, he was awarded the Royal Victorian Medal in bronze, and, having added the Coronation Medal 1902 to his accolades for services in the King’s Company of the Grenadiers, was a member of the Bearer Party at the funeral of Edward VII in May 1910, thereby adding an extremely rare 1st-type Bar to his Royal Victorian Medal - one of six previous Bronze Medal holders so entitled. A Company Sergeant-Major by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he served in Flanders with the 1st Battalion from early October, but transferred to the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers as an Acting Regimental Sergeant-Major in February 1917. And it was in this latter capacity that he was killed in action on 11 April 1917 during an attack on “Greenland Hill” on the Arras front - swept by enemy machine-gun fire from front and flanks, the Battalion lost 11 officers and 307 other ranks. Proctor was buried in the Athies Communal Cemetery Extension. He had, meanwhile, been awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal (AO 125 of April 1917 refers), an award he never lived to see, for it, and his R.V.M. and Bar and Coronation Medal 1902, were among his effects sent by the C.O. Grenadiers to the Infantry Record Office in Dublin in May 1917, ‘pending receipt of War Office instructions re. disposal’, and thence, no doubt to his widow - she had already been forwarded the warrant for his appointment to Warrant Officer Class 2 during his absence on active service in October 1915. Indeed Mrs. Ellis was to remain in contact with the C.O. Grenadiers on other matters, most poignantly to see if her ‘little girl’ could be got into the Guards Home, in May 1918, and again in the following year in respect of the despatch of her late husband’s 1914 Star; sold with related research.