Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private R. Simpson, Seaforth Highlanders, who died on the Western Front on 1 April 1915
1914-15 Star (3-7879 Pte. R. Simpson. Sea: Highrs.); British War and Victory Medals (3-7879 Pte. R. Simpson. Seaforth.) good very fine

Three: Private S. Davies, Rifle Brigade, who was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele, 31 July 1917
1914-15 Star (2-354 Pte. S. Davies. Rif: Brig:); British War and Victory Medals (2-354 Pte. S. Davies. Rif. Brig.) good very fine (6) £120-£160

Robert Simpson was born in Huntley, Aberdeenshire, in 1868, and served in France with the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders from 24 November 1914. The Ross-shire Journal of 30 April 1915, adds:
‘The War Office notifies that death was due to natural causes, now shown to have been from heart failure, on 1st April, in France. Although forty-five [sic] years of age, he offered his services at the outbreak of the war, and was accepted, being in France as early as September [sic], taking part in several of the great events there.’

The 47 year-old husband of Mary J. Dalziel Simpson of 7 McKerrell Street, Paisley, he is buried in the Berkshire Cemetery Extension, Belgium.

Stanley Davies enlisted in the Rifle Brigade at Warrington and served in France with the 2nd Battalion from 27 July 1915. Present on the Somme in 1916, the Battalion fought at Passchendaele as part of 8th Division. Emerging from the trenches at 3.50 a.m. on 31 July 1917, the infantry suffered grievous losses as they attempted to capture and hold Pilckem Ridge; faced with a determined German counter-attack, the slaughter to both sides was only halted by mud and an impenetrable wall of artillery and machine-gun fire which made further movement impossible. Listed as ‘presumed dead’, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.