Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War ‘Battle of the Somme’ M.M. group of six awarded to Sergeant W. Sanders, Royal Field Artillery

Military Medal, G.V.R. (28767 S. Sjt: Fr: W. Sanders. 123/By: R.F.A.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen (28767 Shg: Sth: W. Sanders, 38th. Bty., R.F.A.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (28767 S. Smith: W. Sanders. R.F.A.); 1914 Star, with later slide clasp (28767 Far: S. Sjt. W. Sanders. R.F.A.); British War and Victory Medals (28767 Sjt. W. Sanders. R.A.) light contact marks, nearly very fine (6) £400-£500

M.M. London Gazette 10 November 1916.

William Sanders was born in Cheadle in 1878 and attested for the Royal Field Artillery at Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester, on 12 January 1898. Posted to South Africa from 7 November 1899 as Shoeing Smith, he witnessed action with the 38th Battery at Orange River Colony in April 1900 and ‘stiff work’ near Lindley; the 38th Battery were later mentioned by Sir Arthur Paget for their accurate practice in the taking of Bethlehem in the eastern Free State, without whose help the ‘casualties would have been many more’. Suitably impressed, the 38th joined Paget in the Transvaal, a portion of the guns being engaged in the capture of Erasmus’s camp in September 1900 and Rhenoster Kop on 29 November 1900.

Advanced Corporal Shoeing Smith 10 January 1904, Sanders returned home to England on 20 June 1907. He re-engaged with the Colours 21 April 1910 and qualified as a carriage smith in 1912. Embarked for France with 28th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery on 18 August 1914, Sanders witnessed four years of active service on the Western Front. Awarded the Military Medal whilst posted to 123rd Battery, 28th Brigade, he returned home to his wife Elizabeth on 6 May 1919 and was discharged to Army Reserve in November 1919.

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