Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private E. Butler, Wiltshire Regiment, a Gallipoli veteran, killed in action in Mesopotamia in April 1916
1914-15 Star (10868 Pte. E. Butler, Wilts. R.); British War and Victory Medals (10868 Pte. E. Butler, Wilts. R.), together with related Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (Ernest Butler), and Buckingham Palace memorial scroll, generally extremely fine (4) £300-350

Ernest Butler, who was born in Oxford and a native of Headington, Oxfordshire, enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment in Marylebone, London, and was first embarked for France in mid-December 1914, where he joined the 5th Battalion, part of 40th Brigade, 13 (Western) Division.

In June 1915, the Battalion was embarked for service in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, landing at ‘V’ Beach on 16 July and thence moving up to trenches around Twelve Tree Copse. Then in the following month, having moved to Anzac Cove, the Battalion went into action at Chunuk Bair on the 10th, advancing up the hill in support of the 6th Battalion, Leinster Regiment - three Companies were caught out in the open and all but annihilated, regimental records stating that ‘more than half of the officers and men were never seen again’.

Embarked for Mudros in January 1916, and having seen further action and suffered more casualties in the interim, the Battalion was next ordered to Mesopotamia in support of the ill-fated relief of Kut operations, and it was during the course of these that Butler was killed in action on 9 April 1916, when his unit became bogged down in marshland during the advance on Sannaiyat - blinded by Turkish starlights and subjected to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, the Wiltshires lost 23 officers and men, including their C.O., in addition to 163 wounded and another 42 missing.

Butler, who was 20 years of age, is buried in the Amara War cemetery; sold with an original portrait photograph in uniform, together with original Infantry Record Office forwarding letter for his 1914-15 Star, dated 5 May 1920, and some with related research.