Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The British War Medal awarded to Sapper G. Goines, a black Volunteer with No. 2 Construction Battalion (the ‘Black Battalion’), Canadian Expeditionary Force, and Canadian Overseas Railway Construction Corps

British War Medal 1914-20 (931700 Spr. G. Goines. C.O.R.C.C.) suspension claw re-pinned, scratches to obverse field, edge nicks, therefore nearly very fine, rare to unit £500-£700

Gordon Goines, a black volunteer (his enlistment and discharge papers confirm his complexion as ‘Colored’) was born in Wallington, Ontario, on 13 February 1885 and attested for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Windsor, Ontario, on 3 January 1917, having previously served in the 187th Italian Battalion. Posted to No. 2 Construction Battalion (the ‘Black Battalion’), he departed Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of a force of 19 Officers and 605 other ranks, on the S.S. Southland, and arrived in Liverpool on 7 April 1917. The following month, the unit being under strength, orders were received to change the status of the unit from a Battalion to a Company, and Goines served with his unit during the Great War on the Western Front from 17 May 1917, as part of the Canadian Forestry Corps, and also with the Canadian Overseas Railway Construction Corps. Returning to Canada after the Armistice, he was demobilised at London, Ontario, on 12 February 1919, and died on 24 December 1956.

Sold with copied service papers and a copy of the book The Black Battalion, by Calvin W. Ruck.