Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War 1918 ‘Western Front’ M.M. group of three awarded to Private H. Viner, Royal Fusiliers

Military Medal, G.V.R. (4785 Pte. H. Viner. 3/R. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (4785 Pte. H. Viner. R. Fus.); together with a National Institution of Apprenticeship Exhibition of Apprentices’ Work Prize Medal 1911, silver, the reverse inscribed ‘1st Prize Awarded to H. Viner’, minor blemishes to VM, very fine and better (4) £300-£400

M.M. London Gazette 23 July 1919.

Harry Viner was born in 1896, the son of Jewish emigrants from Poland, and attested for the Royal Fusiliers at Walworth, London. He served with the 3rd Battalion during the Great War in Salonika from 6 October 1916, but contracted malaria in July 1917, and then dysentery in November of that year. Recovering, he subsequently served with the Battalion on the Western Front from 9 July 1918, and was awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry during operations in the final months of the War. Appointed Lance-Corporal on 16 November 1918, he transferred to the 6th Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment on 11 March 1919, before returning to the U.K. for demobilisation in October of that year.

Sold with Fourth Army Certificate congratulating the recipient on the award of his M.M., signed (in facsimile) ‘Rawlinson, Genl.’, this glazed and framed; an illuminated copy of General Rawlinson’s Army Orders, announcing the award of Viner’s M.M., this similarly glazed and framed; and with copied Medal Index Card, attestation papers, and other research.