A Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Private J. R. Webster, 8th (90th Regiment) Battalion, Canadian Infantry - “The Little Black Devils”, who was taken P.O.W. at St. Julien on 22 April 1915

Military Medal, G.V.R. (1675 Pte. J. R. Webster, 8-Can. Inf.); 1914-15 Star (1675 Pte. J. R. Webster, 8/Can. Inf.); British War and Victory Medals (1675 Pte. J. R. Webster, 8-Can. Inf.), the first with corrected initial and surname, contact marks, nearly very fine (4) £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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M.M. London Gazette 30 January 1920:

‘His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Military Medal to the undermentioned Warrant Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers and men for bravery in the Field, whose services have been brought to notice in accordance of the terms of Army Order 193 of 1919. To be dated 5 May 1919, unless otherwise stated’.

Jack Roland Webster was born in Cambridge, England, on 4 February 1893. A Laboratory Assistant by profession, he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Lark Hill in January 1915 - when he stated he had prior service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorials).

Sent out to France as a member of the 8th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, in February 1915, he was taken P.O.W. at the Battle of St. Julien, Ypres, on 26 April of the same year - two days after Company Sergeant-Major Frederick Hall had won a posthumous V.C.

Subsequently interned in Germany, he was moved to Holland in April 1918, and released that November, shortly after which he was awarded his M.M.

Webster was discharged in back in Canada in March 1919 and died in March 1946; sold with copied service papers.