Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Great War Memorial Scroll (Lieut. Col. Stuart Lumley Whatford, C.M.G., D.S.O. Yorkshire Regt. attd. York & Lancaster Regt.) in contemporary glazed frame, good condition £60-£80

Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Lumley Whatford, C.M.G, D.S.O. and Bar, 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, attached to 8th Bn York & Lancaster Regt.. Croix de Guerre with Palm (France), Croce di Guerra (Italy). Son of Jack Henry Whatford and Emily Rose Whatford. Killed 30 September 1919. Aged 40. Buried Arquata Scrivia Communal Cemetery Extension.

The following notes are taken from Robert Coulson's Biographies of Officers in the First World War:-

‘Stuart Whatford was born in Eastbourne on July 23rd 1879. He was first commissioned on January 15th 1902 and saw service in the Boer War with the 3rd Battalion, Mounted Infantry. At the onset of the Great War Captain Whatford was adjutant to the 3rd Yorkshires and in April of 1916 was appointed second in command of the 22nd Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. He saw action on the Somme with the D.L.I. and was then appointed to the command of the 8th Battalion of the York and Lancaster regiment. Major Whatford fought in France and Italy with the battalion and also had a spell attached to the 22nd Machine Gun Battalion. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in January of 1919 he then returned to the command of the York and Lancasters in February of 1919. Lt Col Stuart Lumley Whatford was killed in a car accident between Cremona and Mantua on September 30th 1919 aged 40. A brother officer in the Yorkshire Regiment wrote, “His alluring personality and inspiring influence will ever remain as a landmark in the annals of the Yorkshires and every one of us were the better for coming into contact with him’.