Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

Three: Private W. G. Gardner, Army Service Corps
1914 Star (SS-3199 Pte W. G. Gardner. A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals (3199 Pte. W. G. Gardner. A.S.C.) very fine

Memorial Plaque (William Richard Gardner) in card envelope of issue, very fine (4) £100-£140

W. G. Gardner served during the Great War with the 1st Labor Company, Army Service Corps on the Western Front from 26 August 1914.

William Richard Gardner was born in West Ham in May 1898. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gardner, of 74, Parkstone Road, Walthamstow, London. Gardner served during the Great War as a Boy Servant with H.M.S. Conquest (light cruiser), and was killed in action on 25 April 1916. On the latter date she was engaged by German battlecruisers taking part in the Lowestoft Raid - the German naval bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The Conquest suffered a 12-inch (305-mm) shell hit, which destroyed her aerials and killed 25 and wounded 13 of her crew. Gardner is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.