Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Acting Sergeant Major A. Gale, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, attached Indian Supply and Transport Corps, late Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and Upper Burma Volunteer Rifles, who was killed in action in Iraq on 2 November 1915

1914-15 Star (21368 Sjt. A. Gale. L.N. Lan: R.); British War and Victory Medals (21368 Sjt. A. Gale L.N. Lan. R.); Army L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (Act: Sergt.-Major A. Gale U. Burma Vol: Rifles.) nearly extremely fine (4) £160-£200

Alfred Gale was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1874. A groom by trade, Gale attested at Halifax for the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding) on 19 August 1891, his papers noting him as a 17 year-old ‘growing lad’. Appointed Lance Corporal on 1 September 1894, and Sergeant on 24 June 1897, he served overseas for 17 years in South Africa, the East Indies and Burma, and was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal with gratuity under Army Order No. 239, on 25 April 1910. Advanced Quarter Master Sergeant, Gale was discharged at Gosport on 16 November 1912 upon his second period of engagement, his conduct and character noted as ‘exemplary’.

Remarkably, Gale returned to service for a third period upon the outbreak of the Great War. Despite having attempted a new life in India with his wife and three children from March 1914, he rallied once again to the call and re-enlisted as a Sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. With his experience and fervour, Gale was initially fortunate to be omitted from the Indian Expeditionary Force which sailed from Mumbai on 16 October 1914; the subsequent Battle of Tanga resulted in the loss of approximately 115 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion. Instead, he served in the Persian campaign, attached to the Indian Supply and Transport Corps. It was in this capacity that he was likely charged with maintaining the lines of supply of food, water and ammunition to the city of Basra, which from November 1914 was occupied by the 6th (Poona) Division. Extremely vulnerable to enemy attack across hundreds of miles of open desert, Gale was killed in action on 2 November 1915. He is buried in Basra War Cemetery, Iraq.