Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, E.VII.R. (Captain W. H. Merrett. E.E. R.E.V.) impressed naming, minor surface scratch to obverse, good very fine £80-£100

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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William Henry Merrett was born in Clapham, London on 18 December 1871 and was educated at St. Olave’s Grammar School and the Royal School of Mines, at which latter seat of learning he became a teacher and lecturer. His civilian occupation aside, he enlisted in the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers in 1888, prior to being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineer Volunteers in the summer of 1902. Subsequently advanced to Lieutenant in April 1904 and to Captain in April 1908, he served as O.C of the University of London O.T.C. in the period leading up to the Great War.

Mobilised in July 1914, Merrett joined a searchlight unit in the London Electrical Volunteers and, having been awarded the Territorial Decoration in December 1915, he was promoted to Major in June 1916. Demobilised in April 1919, Merrett served in an anti-aircraft battalion until being placed on the Retired List in February 1926. He died in Sutton, Surrey in October 1938.