Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ sniper’s D.C.M. group of four awarded to Corporal W. Budworth, 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (3-10607 Pte. W. Budworth. 2/North’n R.); 1914 Star, with clasp (3-10607 Pte. W. Budworth. 2/North’n R.); British War and Victory Medals (3-10607 Cpl. W. Budworth. North’n R.) mounted as worn, nearly very fine (4) £1,200-£1,600

D.C.M. London Gazette 14 January 1916; citation published 11 March 1916:

‘For consistent good work as a sniper in the trenches. The smallness of the losses in the battalion from the enemy’s snipers is largely due to his skill and courage. He has also done good work patrolling in front of our lines.’

William Budworth was born at Kettering, Northamptonshire, and attested for the Northamptonshire Regiment on 2 September 1914, aged 34 years 7 months. He joined at Chesterfield and was posted to the 2nd Battalion, with whom he proceeded to France on 6 November 1914. He was wounded on 3 June 1916, and again on 9 February 1917, being discharged on 3 April 1917, due to shell wound to head and fractured skull.

Sold with copied research, including Attestation papers and a typescript account entitled Sniper on the Western Front, by Nobby Clarke, Sniper, 1st and 2nd Northants Regiment, which contains several mentions of Corporal Budworth and their sniping activities on the Western Front.