Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

1914-15 Star (3) (21112 Pte. A. Venn. S. Wales Bord:; 14304 Pte. W. Freeman. S. Wales Bord; 19619 Pte. S. Millward. S. Wales Bord.) nearly extremely fine (3) £70-£90

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers.

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Arthur Venn was born in Bristol and attested for the South Wales Borderers at Abertillery, Monmouthshire. He served with the 10th (1st Gwent) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 3 December 1915, and died of wounds on 7 September 1916. He is buried in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France.

William Freeman attested for the South Wales Borderers and served with the 1st Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 11 December 1914. He subsequently transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and was demobilised on 27 March 1919.

Samuel Millward was born in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1895, and attested there for the South Wales Borderers on 26 April 1915. He served during the Great War on the Western Front from 26 June 1915, before embarking to join the 2nd Battalion as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in Gallipoli on 26 July 1915, arrived in Gallipoli on 14 August 1915. He was admitted to the 87th Field Ambulance and then the 26th Casualty Clearing Station suffering from dysentery on 12 September 1915. He was sent to a hospital ship on 13 September 1915 and evacuated to England where on 26 September he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Lewisham. After convalescing he transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on 1 January 1916 and was posted to 153rd Company M.G.C. in France on 19 March 1916. He was killed in action on the Western Front on 27 July 1916 and is buried in Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, France.

Sold with copied Medal Index Cards and various copied service papers, included in which is a letter written from Millward’s father on 28 November 1916:
‘Sir, I received my son’s articles you forwarded to me, thanks, I am very sorry at losing him. I know he done his duty, its all a brave soldier can do. I am yours, Thomas Millward.’