Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

British War Medal 1914-20 (3) (Capt. J. D. B. Warwick; 2. Lieut. A. Bennett.; 2. Lieut. W. H. Flory.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Lieut. S. Wiseman) generally very fine and better (4) £100-£140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.

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John Douglas Barford Warwick was born in 1894 and was educated at King’s School, Peterborough and Gresham’s School, Holt. He first obtained a commission in the 5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment on 3 November 1910, and transferred to the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion on its formation in the Spring of 1914, being promoted Captain on 31 August that year. He served during the Great War on the Western Front attached to the 1st/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry from 10 September 1916, and commanded ‘A’ Company. He was killed by a gas shell exploding in his dugout on 10 March 1917 - it is recorded in the Regimental History that on 10 March the Battalion was at Barleux, and on that date a gas shell, fired from a German Minenwerfer, landed and exploded inside the entrance of ‘A’ Company Headquarters’ dugout. There were at the time inside the dugout three officers (Captain J. D. B. Warwick, Second Lieutenant S. Wiseman, and Second Lieutenant R. B. Cooper-Smith), as well as Company Sergeant Major Watts, two corporals, five orderlies, three signallers, and four batmen. The first impression of those inside (presumably caused by the flash of the shell) appears to have been that the dugout was on fire, and a large dose of poison was inhaled before they adjusted their box respirators, while those who were asleep were killed.
Warwick is buried at Hem Farm Military Cemetery, Hem-Monacu, France, and is included in the De Ruvigny Roll of Honour, together with his portrait photograph.

Archie Bennett attested originally for the Leicestershire Regiment and served with the 1st Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 9 September 1914. Advanced Sergeant, he was subsequently commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 22 August 1917, and for his services during the Great War was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (London Gazette 3 June 1919).
Note: Although the medal is believed to belong to his Archie Bennett, there are several other possible recipients with this rank, initial and surname.

William Henry Flory, a member of Fitzwilliam Hall, Cambridge University, who was preparing to take Holy Orders, was the son of the Revd. Henry William Flory, Vicar of Isleham, Cambridgeshire, and attested for the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He served with the 1st/4th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 16 September 1917, and was killed in action on 21 March 1918. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, France. His two brothers also fell.

Stanley Wiseman was born in 1885 and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, Essex Regiment, but served during the Great War on the Western Front attached to the 1st/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry fro 12 September 1916. He was killed by a gas shell exploding in his dugout on 10 March 1917, in the incident referred to in Captain Warwick’s biographical entry above, and is buried at Hem Farm Military Cemetery, Hem-Monacu, France.