Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 3rd issue, Regular Army (3) (1864063 S. Sjt. H. E. Pike. R.E.; 7809701 Sjt. H. J. Bazley. R.E.; 1042100 Cpl. J. Flynn. R.E.) edge bruising, generally good very fine and better (3) £100-£140

This lot is to be sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward De Santis.

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Herbert Edward Pike was born on 12 March 1897 and originally enlisted in the Lincolnshire Regiment, but he transferred to the Royal Engineers in December 1915. Assigned to the R.E. Special Brigade, he would have been involved in the delivery of gas attacks, an occupation that led to his employment in the Experimental Company at Porton Down in 1919-24. He subsequently undertook tours of duty in Sierra Leone and Singapore and was discharged as an Engineer Clerk and Quarter-Master Sergeant in November 1935.

Harold John Bazley was born in Devonport on 2 May 1897 and originally enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment in June 1916. But he transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (M.G.C.) at the year’s end and served in 172 Company, M.G.C. in France from early 1917. Admitted to hospital with injuries to his legs during the Passchendaele offensive, he was posted to 48 Company, M.G.C. on his recovery, but then fell ill with pyrexia – a high fever – and was invalided home in January 1918. But he returned to France as a member of the 19th Battalion, M.G.C. in May 1918 and saw further action Cambrai and Selle, and on the Aisne.
Post-war, he transferred to the Royal Engineers in March 1921 and served tours of duty in Malta and Singapore and was awarded his L.S. and G.C. Medal in July 1934. Bazley was discharged as a Staff Sergeant in September 1938 and died in Aldershot, Surrey in September 1978.

James Flynn was born in Co. Mayo, Ireland on 5 September 1894 and witnessed active service in the Royal Field Artillery in the Great War. He then transferred to the Royal Engineers in early 1923 and undertook tours of duty in Malta and Hong Kong and was promoted to Sergeant in February 1935. Based in the U.K. on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, he was posted to 24 Chemical Warfare Group in February 1941, in which unit he was advanced to Company Quarter-Master Sergeant. Tragically, soon afterwards, he took his own life, his death certificate stating ‘by a rifle bullet self-inflicted whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed.’