Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.M. awarded to Acting Company Sergeant-Major J. Stevens, 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles, late Royal Fusiliers, who was wounded at Ladysmith in February 1900

Military Medal, G.V.R. (781505 Pte. J. Stevens, 1/Can. M.R.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith (4942 Cpl. J. Stevens, 2nd Rl. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (781505 A.C.S. Mjr. J. Stevens, 1-C.M.R.); Municipality of Manitoba Tribute Medal 1914-18 (Sergt.-Maj. James Stevens), nearly very fine and better (5) £600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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M.M. London Gazette 3 July 1919.

James Stevens was born in Guildford, Surrey, on 3 February 1877. Subsequently enlisting in the Royal Fusiliers, he witnessed active service as a Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion during the Boer War, and was wounded in the relief of Ladysmith operations on 25 February 1900 - receiving a bullet wound to the face which fractured his skull. Emigrating to Canada at the end of hostilities in South Africa, he was employed as a Baker at Outlook, Saskatchewan, and enlisted into the 128th (Moose Jaw) Battalion in December 1915. Subsequently transferred to the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles, he joined the unit out in France in March 1918 and was awarded the M.M. for his gallantry in actions on the Cambrai-Douai Road Sector during the great push through the Hindenburg Line. Discharged at Outlook in March 1919, Stevens died at Brandon, Manitoba, in October 1947; sold with copied service papers and a modern photograph of his grave.