Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A poignant 1914-15 Star awarded to Lieutenant J. Le Roy Mavety, Canadian Militia, later Royal Army Medical Corps, who died from acute poisoning on the Western Front in December 1915

1914-15 Star (Lieut. J. Le R. Mavety. R.A.M.C.) good very fine £120-£160

John Le Roy Mavety was born in Kingston, Ontario, on 22 August 1887, the son of the Reverend John Edward Mavety. Educated at McGill University, Montreal, he graduated B.A. 1909, M.D. 1911, passing his Medical Council certification in the province of Ontario around 1912. Rendering brief service with the Canadian Militia, he transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps as Temporary Lieutenant in June 1915 and was soon in the thick of the action with the 46th Division on the Western Front. Arriving in time for the Battle of Loos, Mavety witnessed the devastating attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915, where, in a matter of minutes, the 46th Division suffered 3,763 casualties. This undoubtedly placed considerable strain upon the medical services, especially the front-line doctors such as Mavety who were frequently coming up against the extreme facial and torso injuries caused by mechanised warfare for the first time.

According to online sources, Mavety died on 13 December 1915 in consequence of poisoning. At that time, the most common form of poisoning involved the drug morphine; a most potent analgesic, morphine sulphate was heavily employed during the Great War to take the severely wounded into a state of relief - and into the possession of Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep. Aged 29 years at his time of death, he is buried in St. Venant Communal Cemetery, France.