PREVIEW: HISTORICAL MEDALS 8 JUNE

King’s Medals from the reign of George V form two of the highlights of this sale, one awarded by Wellington College in 1912, the other by Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1922.

The 1912 issue was awarded to Herbert Bland Stokes, the 1922 issue to James Cotter Roger Fitzgerald-Lombard. Each is estimated at £2,600-3,000.

Stokes (1894-1962) went on to Balliol College, Oxford, before signing up to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel at the end of his career. Seriously wounded in a shell explosion on The Somme in 1916, he continued to serve on light duties until the end of the war.

Stokes was formally exempted from further military service because of his wounds, but signed up to the army in his old rank as captain once more, aged 45, on 2 September 1939, the day before Chamberlain declared that Britain was at war with Germany.

Having served as chief executive of Queen Charlotte’s hospital in London between the wars, he was put in charge of medical supplies in Dieppe.

He remained in France for a fortnight after the evacuation of Dunkirk and was one of many servicemen to leave for Britain via St Nazaire. His ship, the Lancastria, carrying 5,500 troops, was sunk by Luftwaffe bombers, with the loss of 3,400. Stokes was pulled from the water, suffering from shock and exhaustion, having got hold of a lifebelt.

Awarded an MBE shortly after, he later found himself on the staff of General Montgomery as Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General with Headquarters South Eastern Command.

James Cotter Roger Fitzgerald-Lombard (1905-81), awarded the second medal, was educated at Cheltenham College, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and Clare College, Cambridge.

A career soldier, he also won the Armstrong Memorial Prize Medal in 1924 before being commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1925. Winning promotion to Lieutenant in 1927 and Captain in 1936, he served in India, 1936-37, was Staff Captain, China, 1937-39, and in Hong Kong in 1939, before serving in France 1939-40, Iceland 1940-41, and France and Belgium in 1944.