Pair: Gunner J. Covel, Royal Garrison Artillery, a soldier of Russo-Jewish heritage who was severely burnt by poison gas in the summer of 1918

British War and Victory Medals (131538 Gnr. J. Covel. R.A.) very fine (2) £70-£90

Jacob Covel was born in Manchester in 1893, the third child of Russo-Jewish immigrants Isaac and Ettie Covel. Moving to England sometime between 1889 and 1893, the Covel family were amongst 2.7 million Jews who migrated west from Russia and Eastern Europe between 1881 and 1914; many sought employment and a better standard of living, whilst others sought to avoid compulsory military service or persecution.

Attesting for the Royal Garrison Artillery on 4 December 1916, Covel decided to adopt the forename ‘Jack’ during his time in uniform. Sent to France on 11 February 1918, he saw initial service with the 298th Heavy Siege Battery but was soon in hospital with sickness. Returning to his Battery a few weeks later, his Army Service Record records a severe mustard gas shell wound on 14 June 1918; listed as ‘seriously ill’, it adds ‘severe burns to legs, buttock, scrotum.’

Evacuated home per H.S. St. Denis, Covel spent months in recovery at Coombe Lodge Hospital in Essex. Transferred to Army Reserve 19 February 1919, he later returned to his family home at 62 Lord Street, Manchester, and resumed his pre-War employment as a tailor.