Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Private (Acting Corporal) R. F. Harrison, 19th (2nd Tyneside Pioneers) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers

British War and Victory Medals (19-925 Pte., North’d Fus.), good very fine

Pair: Private J. R. Runciman, 22nd (3rd Tyneside Scottish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, who died of wounds on the Somme on 1 July 1916

British War Medal 1914-20 (22-411 Pte., North’d Fus.); Victory Medal 1914-19, naming erased, very fine

Pair: Private J. Wake, 26th (3rd Tyneside Irish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, who was killed in action on the Somme on 1 July 1916

British War and Victory Medals (26-1468 Pte., North’d Fus.), the first with re-pinned slack suspension bar, contact marks, edge bruising and polished, good fine (6) £100-120

John Robert Runciman died of wounds on the Somme on the 1 July 1916, while serving in the 22nd (3rd Tyneside Scottish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. His unit moved forward with the 21st Battalion in the attack on La Boisselle, just 150 of his comrades being located in the German line by nightfall.

John Wake was killed in action on 1 July 1916, while serving in the 26th (3rd Tyneside Iriish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers - the husband of Elizabeth Wake, of Brecon Hill, Fence Houses, Co. Durham, he was aged 39 years. His unit was also allocated to the attack on La Boiselle, moving forward from assembly trenches near Tara Redoubt, the relevant war diary noting that the ‘men advanced as if on parade under heavy machine-gun and shell fire’ - by nightfall just a few parties were holding out in shell holes in No Man’s Land.