Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Second Lieutenant S. G. Williams, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine

Three: Driver T. H. Matthews, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, later Royal Army Service Corps, who was captured and taken Prisoner of War in North Africa in 1941
1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, nearly extremely fine (7) £80-£100

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 46th Foot and its Successor Units.

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Stanley Gordon Williams was born in 1920 and lived in the village of Gulval, near Penzance. Enlisting on 25 April 1939, he was soon posted to 164th Officer Cadet Training Unit and appointed to a commission in the 6th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Sent to No. 5 Corps School, he later witnessed active service in North West Europe before taking his discharge and forging a civilian career in the insurance industry.

Sold with a fine selection of original documentation including Certificate of Discharge upon being appointed to a commission, dated 15 November 1940; letters from the National Provincial Bank relating to an inheritance; card recommendation from Formation College, noting the recipient ‘an excellent student’ - but with minor weakness in mercantile law.

Thomas Henry Matthews was born in the Parish of St. Giles, Edinburgh, in the autumn of 1903. A labourer, he attested for the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at Birmingham on 20 May 1922, passing his 3rd Class Certificate of Education at Bodmin shortly thereafter. Transferred to Lucknow in 1927, he left the Colours in 1930 but later re-enlisted as a Driver with the Royal Army Service Corps on 6 September 1934. Posted to North Africa, he was taken prisoner on 28 April 1941 and was held at Stalag 383 (Hohen Fels) until 9 May 1945. Matthews was later discharged from the R.A.S.C. Special Reserve on 28 January 1953, his records noting ‘medically unfit for further service’, possibly exacerbated by the long period of incarceration.

Sold with the recipient’s original Regular Army Certificate of Service and Soldier’s Release Book, Class ‘A’; with a fine Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Medal (Depot), bronze, unnamed as awarded.