Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1908 (Lt. & Adj. C. P. Marten, 1st W. Y. Regt.), mounted as worn, extremely fine £280-320

M.I.D. London Gazette 4 January 1917.

Charles Peter Marten was born in 1880, the son of Captain S. W. Marten, East Kent Militia and Mrs B. L. Marten of Shalmsford Bridge Manor, Canterbury. He was educated at Tonbridge School and Clare College, Cambridge. Gazetted to the Prince of Wales’s Own West Yorkshire Regiment on 4 December 1901, he served as Lieutenant and Adjutant with the regiment in the operations in the Mohmand country, 1908. Promoted Captain in 1911 and Major in 1916. On 7 March 1916 he was attached to the 32nd Battalion (East Ham) Royal Fusiliers as Major and 2nd in command. Later in the year he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and placed in command of the 18th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was killed in action on 15 September 1916 by a shell explosion as he was about to lead his battalion in an attack on the village of Flers (Battle of the Somme). Despite the loss of their commanding officer and three other officers killed in the same explosion, the battalion accomplished its mission and took the village. Lieutenant-Colonel Marten was buried in the Serre Road Cemetery No.2. Sold with some copied research.