Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Attributed to D. E. Ridley, Royal Navy
1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45; together with the riband of the Atlantic Star, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mr. D. E. Ridley, 28 Gilpin Avenue, East Sheen, London’, and inscribed in ink ‘C/LDX 4775’, good very fine

Five: Representing the entitlement of Trooper J. McGrath, 41st Royal Tank Regiment T.A., 3rd Kings Own Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps, late Lancashire Fusiliers and Manchester Regiment

1939-45 Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, 1st Army; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf, court mounted, unnamed as issued but accompanied by copies of service records, some laminated, and a statement that the medals had belonged to the former owner’s grandfather, good very fine

Three: Attributed to Private R. Williams, Devonshire Regiment
1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; together with one large brass and one smaller bi-metal regimental button; a personalised 1936 Christmas Card from Roy Williams; and two photographs of the recipient, very fine

Three: Attributed to Private R. D. Williams, Royal Army Medical Corps
1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, very fine

One: Attributed to Mr. A. T. W. Daniels
Defence Medal; unnamed as issued, with Home Secretary’s enclosure, in named Home Office card box of issue addressed to ‘Mr. A. T. W. Daniels, 51 Navarino Mansions, Dalston Lane, Hackney’, and Home Secretary enclosure slip, very fine

South Africa Medal for War Service, unnamed as issued, good very fine (15) £80-£100

D. E. Ridley, No. X4775 was an Acting Petty Officer Telegrapher, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and received the Royal Naval Reserve Long Service Medal in October 1945.

John McGrath was born on 24 February 1914. He first enlisted into 10th Battalion Manchester Regiment on 12 May 1936, and was transferred to 41st Royal Tank Regiment in September 1939, but was discharged, as he was urgently required for civil employment. He re-enlisted into the Royal Armoured Corps on 24 June 1940, but was posted to 1st/5th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, until posted to 108th Regiment R.A.C. and then to 142nd Regiment R.A.C. in 1942, serving with that unit in North Africa and Italy. He was transferred to Class ‘Z’ Army Reserve in May 1946. His home address in 1940 was at Oldham, Lancs and later at Warwick Rd., Clacton on Sea, Essex. There is no indication in his service papers that he was mentioned in despatches, and the award has not been traced in the London Gazette.

Raymond D. Williams served in the B.E.F. with H.Q. 3rd Field Ambulance R.A.M.C. He later served in No. 10 General Hospital, Gibraltar. His home address was at 29 Penbryn Terrace, Penrhiwceiber, Glamorgan. A handwritten note with the lot states that he assisted in the burial of the first British Casualty in the B.E.F., at Luttange, of a Pte. Priddy [sic] of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (Private T. W. Priday, K.S.L.I., died on 9 December 1939, and is buried in Luttange Communal Cemetery, France; he is recognised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as the first British casualty of the Second World War).

Sold a with named ‘Toc H’ Pass issued to 7264200 Pte. R. D. Williams, Royal Army Medical Corps dated 9 December 1939; a small personal diary for 1940 issued by the ‘Toc H’ organisation to named to R. D. Williams, H.Q. 3rd Field Ambulance B.E.F. France, containing some faint pencil entries relating to his time in the B.E.F. and being evacuated from Cherbourg on 12/13th June 1940, this distressed with loose pages; a couple of press cuttings in which he is mentioned; and a glossy postcard photo book containing 10 postcard photographs of Gibraltar where he was later stationed