Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Captain A. St. J. C. D. M. King, Wiltshire Regiment, late Imperial Light Horse: a veteran of the Defence of Ladysmith who was nicknamed “Boy King” by his Great War comrades on account of his age, he was wounded at Loos and on the Somme - on the former occasion he had practically to be removed by force from the battlefield in order to receive medical attention

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Defence of Ladysmith, Orange Free State, Transvaal (671 Tpr. A. St. J. C. King, Imp. L.H.); 1914-15 Star (Lieut. A. St. J. C. D. M. King, Wilts. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. A. St. J. C. D. M. King), mounted as worn, good very fine or better (4) £400-500

Austin St. John Charles Dominic May King served in the Boer War with the Imperial Light Horse and was discharged in November 1900, after taking part in the Defence of Ladysmith.

By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he held, according to regimental sources, ‘an important position in Portuguese East Africa’, but quickly resigned his post to return to the U.K.

Commissioned in the 8th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment that December, he witnessed active service out in France with the 2nd Battalion, and was wounded in the stomach at Loos on 20 September 1915, when, as verified by the Battalion’s history, ‘so keen was he that the Officer Commanding had personally to command him to hand over his Company to his next senior and he was practically withdrawn by force from the scene of the battle by the stretcher bearers.’

Here then a glimpse of the “Boy King” in action, though the same source’s claim that he was ‘close to sixty’ was an exaggeration - he was in fact in his mid-forties. Be that as it may, King rejoined his unit in France and was wounded for a second time by shellfire at Flers Trench on the Somme on 15 October 1916, ‘when the Hun got the exact range’ - so exact that King received multiple shrapnel wounds. Thereafter, he was employed back in the U.K. and he died at Hastings, Sussex, in March 1930; sold with a large quantity of research.