Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Battle of Epehy’ D.C.M. group of four awarded to Acting Warrant Officer Class II F. S. Blamire, 1st/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (331037 Sjt: F. S. Blamire 1/1 Camb: R.); British War and Victory Medals (331037 A.W.O. Cl. 2. F. S. Blamire. Camb. R.); Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, 1 clasp, Long Service 1939, unnamed, slight dig to obverse field of DCM, minor edge bruising, otherwise good very fine (4) £1,600-£2,000

D.C.M. London Gazette 12 March 1919; citation published 2 December 1919:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and good leadership at Epehy on the 18-19 September 1918. When his platoon was held up by a strong machine-gun nest, he went across the open to a tank and directed it to the machine-gun nest. He then followed with his platoon, and sent back as a result several prisoners. On 19 September, in command of his company, he led them ably and gained his objective.’

Frederick Stanley Blamire was born at Ellel, near Calgae, Lancaster, on 9 May 1878, and prior to the Great War was employed first as an assistant master at an Elementary School in Bury St. Edmunds, and then as the School Attendance Officer for the Cockfield area of Suffolk. Following the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted as part of the Derby Scheme but his call up was deferred due to his occupation, and it was not until January 1917 that he was finally mobilised, being posted to the Cambridgeshire Regiment. He served during the Great War on the Western Front in the rank of Sergeant (acting Warrant Officer Class II) - for a time he was attached to the 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, but he reverted to the Cambridgeshire Regiment when the 7th Suffolks was disbanded in May 1918. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his gallantry at Epehy in September 1918, and was demobilised following the cessation of hostilities. In later life he lived in both London and Somerset, and died in Croydon in 1962.

Sold together with a photographic image of the recipient, and copied research.