Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. group of three awarded to Second Lieutenant A. C. Swift, Royal Garrison Artillery, late 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who was wounded on the Somme on 5 October 1916

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (2 Lieut. A. C. Swift) generally very fine (3) £700-£900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

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Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, March 2010.

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Arthur Clifford Swift, a native of Bramhope, near Leeds, was born in September 1890, and enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in November 1915. He served with the 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, K.R.R.C. during the Great War on the Western Front from April 1916, where he quickly saw action at Ploegsteert Wood. Afterwards ordered to the Somme, his Battalion was severely mauled in an attack on Flers on 15 September, and Swift was wounded by a gunshot in the back at Transloy on 5 October and evacuated to the U.K. via Rouen.

Swift was subsequently commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery in May 1917, and joined 254th Siege Battery out in France in August 1917. For his services during the Great War he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 23 December 1918) and awarded the Military Cross.

Sold with copied research.