Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: attributed to Major R. S. T. Sandberg, Royal Army Dental Corps, who committed suicide on 11 June 1948

Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial, reverse officially dated ‘1946’, all unnamed, extremely fine (3) £100-£140

Tony Sabell Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, June 2013.

Reginald Samuel Thomas Sandberg served six years in the school cadet force and attained the rank of C.Q.M.S. He later served in the London University O.T.C. Gained qualification as a Dental Surgeon (L.D.S., R.C.S.) 1927. Commissioned a Lieutenant in the Territorial Army on 1 July 1931, Sandberg was posted to the 8th London Hygiene Company, R.A.M.C. (T.A.) in July 1931, and promoted to Captain in May 1934. He was embodied at the outbreak of the Second World War, when he was 2i/c of the 8th London Hygiene Company R.A.M.C. (T.A.). Posted to the Army School of Hygiene, Aldershot, as a Specialist in Sanitation on 6 September 1939, he later transferred to the Army Dental Corps in October 1939 with the rank of Captain, and from November 1939 was 1i/c of the Dental Centre, Martinique House, Bordon. Major Sandberg died in Northwood on 11 June 1948, having committed suicide by inhaling nitrous oxide gas. The coroner’s findings were that he had ‘killed himself not being of sound mind’.

Sold with medal forwarding box addressed to ‘Mrs M. Sandberg, Brambledown, 20, Batchworth Lane, Northwood, Middlesex’; Army Council enclosure slip named to ‘Major R. S. T. Sandberg’; together with the recipient’s original commission document appointing him a Lieutenant in the T.A., dated 1 July 1931, and with copied research.