Lot Archive

Lot

№ 684

.

17 September 1999

Hammer Price:
£370

Four: Lieutenant & Quartermaster W. R. Weller, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, killed in action on the Somme 1916

Delhi Durbar 1903 (3116 Qr. Mr. Sergt., 2nd Bn. Arg. & Suth’d. Highrs.); India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1894-5 (3116 Sergt., 2nd Bn. Arg. & Suth’d. Highrs.); India General Service 1895-1908, 1 clasp, Punjab Frontier 1897-98 (3116 Sergt., 2nd Bn. Arg. & Suth’d. Highrs.); Army L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (3116 Q.M. Sjt., A. & S. Hdrs.) together with Bronze Memorial Plaque (William Richard Weller) light contact marks, otherwise very fine and better (5) £300-350

Only two Waziristan clasps to the regiment. Weller was Pack Store Sergeant at No. III British Field Hospital, with Private D. McRae as his Pack Store Private. He received one of the ten Delhi Durbar Medals awarded to the regiment in 1903, in his capacity as Quarter-Master-Sergeant. He was killed in action on the Somme on 18 July 1916, when ‘They were carrying rations to the front line and while passing along a sunken road north of Montauban a heavy barrage was put down on them. The enemy used a new gas shell and the Quartermaster, Lieut. W. R. Weller and the Transport Officer, Lieut. K. D. Thomson, were hit twice and died most gallantly trying to save the horses. Nearly every man was wounded or gassed and 17 horses killed. He is buried in Bray Military Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme, France.