Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private R. Wakeham, Royal Marine Light Infantry, an Armoured Car Section veteran of the Antwerp 1914 operations who was killed in action with in April 1917 while serving in the 2nd R.M. Battalion, Royal Naval Division

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Cape Colony (Pte., R.M.L.I., H.M.S. Niobe); British War Medal 1914-20 (PLY. 7915 Pte., R.M.L.I.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (PLY. 7915 Pte., R.M.L.I.), light contact marks, very fine or better (3) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barrett J. Carr Collection of Boer War Medals.

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129 one-clasp Queen’s South Africa Medals were awarded to the ship’s company of H.M.S. Niobe, around 60 of them to men of the Royal Marine Light Infantry.

Richard Wakeham was born in Lancashire in December 1877 and enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry in April 1896. Posted to the Plymouth Division, he served aboard H.M.S. Niobe from December 1898 to November 1900, during which period he was among those landed at Walfisch Bay, with two Maxims and a 12-pounder field gun, in February of the latter year. He was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in June 1911.

Wakeham joined the R.M. Brigade in September 1914, was one of around 50 Marines attached to the Armoured Car Section, R.N.A.S., and served in Antwerp, qualifying for the 1914 Star with clasp - the latter appears to have been issued to his sister in 1929. Sadly, however, he was killed in action on 28 April 1917, while a member of the 2nd Royal Marine Battalion, a component of the Royal Naval Division. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.