Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain J. E. Shennan, South African Service Corps, who died in November 1918 of malaria contracted whilst serving in East Africa

1914-15 Star (Lt. J. E. Shennan S.A.S.C.); British War and Bilingual Victory Medals (Capt. J. E. Shennan.) together with Bronze Memorial Plaque (John Eric Shennan) extremely fine (4) £240-£300

John Eric Shennan was born in Edinburgh on 21 July 1887, eldest son of James William Shennan, a Master of the Edinburgh Merchant Company. Educated at Edinburgh University, reading Law and forming part of the University’s 1st XI, he became a chartered accountant in 1912 and moved to South Africa to work for the firm of Howard, Pim & Hardy in Johannesburg. On the outbreak of war he joined up and received a commission as Lieutenant in November 1914 with the South African Service Corps. He took part in the action against a Boer rebellion in 1914-15 and was then in the fighting in German South-West Africa which ended in July 1915. He afterwards fought in the East Africa campaign and was promoted to Captain in 1917. Fighting in the tropics took a toll on his health, which had not been good even before the war, and he was invalided back to South Africa with malaria in the summer of 1918. He survived a bout of influenza but finally succumbed to malaria on 28 November 1918, the day German forces surrendered in East Africa.

He is buried in Johannesburg [Brixton] Cemetery, the memorial stone reading ‘In Memory of Capt. John Eric Shennan Born at Edinburgh Scotland 21. July 1887 Died at Johannesburg 25. Nov. 1918 “Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori.”