Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant P. F. H. Simon, Royal Field Artillery, who is believed to have been twice wounded in 1918 and later became a guide in South Africa
British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. P. F. H. Simon.) mounted as worn, very fine

Pair: Corporal E. T. Moss, Royal Field Artillery
British War and Victory Medals (L-14493 Cpl. E. T. Moss. R.A.) nearly extremely fine (4) £80-£100

Philip Frederick Howard Simon was born in Lambeth in 1898 and was educated at Charterhouse School. Appointed to a commission in the Royal Field Artillery, he served in France from 7 February 1918 and later emigrated to South Africa. It was here that he caught the attention of the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser on 18 March 1938:
‘Captain C. W. R. Knight went out to South Africa as the leader of the National Geographical Societies of America 1937 South African Expedition and his companions were Mr. Egbert Pfeiffer, of New York City, and Messrs. H. L. Arten and P. F. H. Simon, both of Stellenbosch, South Africa. The party drove over 20,000 miles in search of various creatures. Their primary objective was the Crowned Eagle, which lives in tall trees and lives on monkeys... They also filmed much other wild life, from tiny moles to the white rhinoceros, which isn’t really white, but is three times as big as the ordinary rhinoceros.’

Surviving encounters with venomous snakes and other disgruntled wildlife, Simon died in Cape Town on 23 November 1953.

Ernest Thomas Moss was born in East Ham on 8 June 1889 and served with the Royal Field Artillery during the Great War; he is further recorded in 1939 as a boiler attendant and member of the ‘Civil Defence (Gas Company)’ living in Hornchurch.

Sold with an attractive hallmarked silver Masonic plaque, the reverse engraved ‘Hope of East Ham Lodge, No. 88 Presented to: Bro. E. T. Moss. May 15. 1903.’; a bronze East Ham School attendance medal, named to ‘E. Moss’; and a Gas Light & Coke Company Centenary Medal 1812-1912, unnamed, all contained in a period box named to ‘Ernest T. Moss, 62 Alexandra Road, East Ham, London. E.’