Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (ME-264 Far. Sjt. G. Gilbert, 2/S.A. Eng. Troop) good very fine £120-£160

Dix Noonan Webb, March 2008.

M.S.M. London Gazette 3 June 1919:
‘In recognition of valuable services rendered in connection with Military Operations with the Forces in East Africa’.

George Gilbert was born in England about 1884. He was 33 years of age, single and a carpenter by trade when he attested at Roberts Heights to the South African Expeditionary Forces on 1 May 1917, giving his next-of-kin as his mother Rebecca Gilbert of Newcastle, Australia. Taken on strength from 28 April 1917, he was posted as a Sapper Carpenter of the Mounted Engineers. He was promoted Acting Sergeant on 2 November 1917 and to Farrier Sergeant, 2nd South African Engineering Troop, from 9 April 1918. He embarked aboard H.M.T. Royal George for East Africa on 22 July 1917. During his service he was treated for malaria on several occasions between 5 December 1917 and 12 December 1918, at Dar-es-Salaam, Morogosa, Lindi, St Amelia, and Kilossa. He disembarked from H.M.T. Ingoma on return at Durban on 28 December 1918. He was demobilised on 13 January 1919 and discharged at Durban on 9 February 1919, giving his address as Lake Hotel, Boksburg.

Sold with copied service papers.