Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

1914 Star (355792. R. G. Redman, Sto. 1Cl. Hood Bttn. RND.); 1914-15 Star (Commr. G. F. T. F. Ellis. R.N.) good very fine (2) £140-£180

Reginald George Redman, a native of Tottenham, Middlesex, served with the Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division during the Great War on the Western Front, and subsequently with 190th Brigade, Machine Gun Company, Royal Naval Division. He was killed in action on 13 November 1916- the Times History gives the following account:

‘North of the River Somme the enemy offered a more stubborn resistance. The British Naval Division had been allotted the task of storming the enemy’s position from the Ancre to “Y” ravine. The extreme right of the Division went with a rush across the valley bottom. The centre had to attack diagonally along the slope of the hill and the extreme left to mount the highest point of the crest. At the top of the slope some 500 yards from the Ancre, and invisible owing to being hidden in a recess, was a redoubt comprised of three deep pits with concrete emplacements for machine guns, which could fire almost flush with the surface of the ground in all directions. This redoubt was situated between the first and second trenches. While the extreme right of the Naval Division swept up the valley the right centre was hung up round the redoubt. The left of the division, however, stormed the ridge, joined hands with the extreme right, and formed up on the Beaumont Hamel - Beaucourt road. There they remained for the rest of the day and during the night, while the redoubt and other strong points were being reduced. The Division, in two days’ fighting, had taken 1,725 prisoners, and advanced 2,000 yards.

Redman was killed in this action, and is buried in Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.