Four: Private P. G. Pike, Devonshire Regiment

British War and Victory Medals (1641 Pte. P. G. Pike. Devon. R.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19 (1641 Pte. P. G. Pike. Devon. R.); Territorial Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (5611124 Sjt. P. G. Pike. 4-Devon. R.) contact marks, nearly very fine (4) £200-£240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter and Dee Helmore.

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Philip George Pike was born in St Thomas, Exeter, in 1893. A tinsmith by occupation he enlisted into the 4th (Territorial) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment in February 1914. Embodied on 5 August 1914 he embarked with the 1/4th Battalion on the TS Nevasa at Southampton and disembarked at Karachi on 10 November 1914. He further embarked with the Battalion for India Expeditionary Force ‘D’ Mesopotamia on 23 February 1916, and was employed in defence of Tigris Line, where the battalion took part in the successful attack on the Hai Salient on 3 February 1917.

Private Pike received a severe gun-shot wound to the abdomen in the action at Hai Salient and was admitted to 23 British General Hospital Amara on 4 February 1917. Evacuated to India, he was admitted to Victoria War Hospital Bombay and then transferred to Hyslop War Hospital at Secunderbad before being discharged to the battalion depot at Ferozepore. Contracting malaria, he was once again admitted to hospital in Secunderbad on 29 September 1917. Posted to the 10th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment in Salonica on 26 December 1918 he was finally demobilised at Exeter on 1 May 1919. He re-attested for the 4th (Territorial) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at Exeter on 6 September 1920 and was awarded the Territorial Efficiency Medal in 1923. Enrolling in Local Defence Volunteers ‘C’ Company, 1st (Loyal City of Exeter) Battalion, Devon Home Guard on 27 June 1940, he was discharged after 77 days’ service in consequence of ‘Business Reasons’. He died in Exminster on 9 December 1975, aged 82.

Sold with two photographs of the 1/4th Devonshire Regiment crossing the front line on the Hai Salient, 3 February 1917; and copied research.