A Fine Collection of of Great War Medals to the Rifle Brigade

Three: Captain E.R. Donner, Rifle Brigade, a Guillemont casualty

1914-15 Star (Lieut., Rif. Bde.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.); together with memorial plaque (Eric Robert Donner) this contained in an attractive double-fronted hinged leather display case; original card box of issue for star; and tiny photo. portraits of his parents, extremely fine (4) £400-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of of Great War Medals to the Rifle Brigade.

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M.I.D. London Gazette 15 June 1916.

Eric Robin Donner was born in 1895 and educated at Harrow (and was admitted to Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not go up due to the war). He was Head of his House and played in the Football XI. He enlisted in the Buffs in September 1914 and the following month received a commission in the 11th (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade, commanding No. 1 Platoon in “A” Company. Promoted to lieutenant in February 1915 and proceeded to France with the battalion in July. Promoted to captain, commanding “A” Company, September 1915 and Mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatch of 30 April 1916. The battalion served in the Laventie & Ypres fronts where, on 10 July 1916, Captain Donner commanded a trench raid of six officers and 40 men which suffered terrible casualties whilst machine-gunned in the German wire. Soon after this disastrous event the battalion moved to the Somme, where, on 3 September 1916 they were destined to make history as leading battalion in the capture of Guillemont by the 20th (Light) Division. The battalion attacked on a two company front, “A” Company (Donner) and “B” leading the assault across the flat expanse from Trones Wood to Guillemont, bristling with defences. The first objective, a sunken road, was rushed within minutes, and 150 dead Germans were afterwards counted there. The battalion pushed on into the village and Captain Donner was Killed in Action in the third line of German trenches, “gallantly leading his Company,” his C.O. wrote, “when he was shot through the spine and dropped dead… For a boy just over twenty-one he was phenomenal.” His former C.O. wrote: “He was a splendid Company leader and his loss to the Battalion will be very great. He met his death, as all our best do, as a leader of men in a successful enterprise; but he was of a type that the British Army – and the nation, for that matter – cannot afford to lose.” Captain Donner has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Note plaque named Robert not Robin: an understandable error as the name Robert is given wrongly on the top page of his application for a commission and in correspondence relating to his death present in his personal file at the P.R.O..

Sold with copy photos.