Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A well documented family group:

Three: Private E. H. Bishop, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, wounded in action and captured, Nieuport les Bains, 10 July 1917
1914-15 Star (5-4146 Pte., K.R. Rif. C.); British War and Victory Medals (5-4146 Pte., K.R. Rif. C.)

Three: attributed to Stoker 1st Class E. A. Bishop, Royal Navy, killed in action, 8 June 1940, when serving on the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Glorious
1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal 1939-45, all unnamed, first group with edge bruising, very fine and better (6)
£160-200

Edward Henry Bishop was born in Wandsworth in 1893. He married the widow Agnes Eleanor (née Smith) Borrow in 1915. She had previously married William Borrow in May 1914. Rifleman Borrow of the K.R.R.C. died from an accidental gunshot wound on 25 January 1915. Bishop attested for the Army Reserve (Special Reserve) at London on 14 November 1910 and served with the 5th Battalion King’s Royal Rifles. With the battalion he entered France on 24 November 1914, remaining there until September 1915 when he was wounded and invalided to England. Serving with the 2nd Battalion he returned to France in January 1917. He was wounded in the right knee at Nieuport les Bains on 10 July 1917 and taken prisoner. Bishop was held as a prisoner-of-war at Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse, Germany. Repatriated after the war,he was discharged to Class ‘Z’ Reserve on 29 April 1919. He died in Reading, Berkshire in 1950.

With a number of original documents: Army Form B104-31 concerning his admittance to Princess Christian’s Military Hospital, Englefield Green, Surrey, suffering from a gunshot wound and contusion to the head, dated 21 October 1915; a British Red Cross and Order St. John letter, to Mrs Bishop, dated 10 July 1917, concerning the action at Nieuport les Bains, where her husband was captured; Army Form B104-83A informing his wife that he was a prisoner-of-war; King George V’s letter to returned prisoners-of-war; character certificate; discharge certificate; photograph of Bishop; The War Illustrated, Vol. 6, No. 156 - with an article on Nieuport les Bains. With copied service papers, m.i.c. and other research; also with copied research on Borrow.

Edward Arthur Bishop was born in Wandsworth on 8 April 1920, the son of Edward Henry and Agnes Eleanor Bishop. Serving as a Stoker 1st Class on board the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Glorious, he was killed in action on 8 June 1940 when his ship was sunk by the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Narvik, Norway. Of the 1,245 officers and men aboard the ship, only 37 survived.

With a number of original documents: certificate of registry of birth; an undated letter from Bishop to his mother written while serving on H.M.S. Glorious; telegram, dated 11 June 1940 informing his mother that he was missing in action and possibly a prisoner-of-war; letters from the R.N. Barracks, Chatham (4), dated 1 July 1940, 17 February 1941, 20 October 1941, and 21 October 1941 concerning his death in action; Certificate of the Inspector of Seamen’s Wills (2) dated 16 December 1941 and 2 May 1946; named commemorative scroll; named condolence slip that accompanied the medals; photograph of Stoker Bishop; three other related photographs. With copied research.