Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant A. H. G. Chatterton, Royal Field Artillery Territorial Force, who died from sickness and heat exhaustion in Mesopotamia on 21 July 1917
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. A. H. G. Chatterton.) very fine

Five: Sergeant W. J. Bayley, Honourable Artillery Company, late Royal Field Artillery
British War and Victory Medals (256663 Gnr. W. J. Bayley. R.A.); 1939-45 Star, privately engraved ‘Sgt. W. J. Bayley 1940’; War Medal 1939-45; Russia, Empire, Medal for Zeal, Nicholas II, silver, an unofficial striking of French manufacture, unnamed as issued, mounted as worn, all lacquered, suspension re-affixed on BWM, the Great War pair heavily polished, these fair, the rest good very fine (7) £100-£140

Alfred Henry Goodbarne Chatterton was born at Southsea in 1887 and is recorded in 1911 as an undergraduate student at Oxford. He married Fanny Marguerite Chatterton in the second quarter of 1916 and served in Mesopotamia from 14 October 1916 with the 3/1st Battalion, Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Like many men who fought in the desert, the climate and lack of clean water and sanitation proved just as troublesome to Chatterton as the Turks and their allies; evacuated to medical care, he died in Baghdad and is buried at Baghdad (North Gate) Cemetery, Iraq. The Hampshire Telegraph of 10 August 1917 adds a little more detail:
‘It is with deep regret we announce the death of Lieutenant Chatterton in Mesopotamia, where he was sent with his Battery from India. He came through the advance upon and capture of Baghdad, as well as some minor actions, untouched, and wrote cheerfully of the life and conditions there. Then came the news that he was dangerously ill in hospital with an “undiagnosed” fever, and then a telegram saying that he had died from the effects of heat on July 21st.’

Walter John Bayley was born in Lambeth in 1901 and served as a Gunner with the Royal Field Artillery during the Great War. He later joined the Honourable Artillery Company on 14 February 1921; Russian award unconfirmed.