Three: Acting Colour Serjeant E. Harris, Hampshire Regiment

1914-15 Star (21155 Pte., Hamps. R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (21155 A.C. Sjt., Hamps. R.) mounted court style for wear, good very fine (3) £120-160

Edward Harris was born in Stockport, Lancashire in 1874. He attested for the Lancashire Fusiliers at Bury on 22 March 1893. As Private 4428 he served with them in the Sudan Expedition and the Second Boer War earning the medals: Queen’s Sudan; Khedive’s Sudan with clasp for Khartoum; Queen’s South Africa with clasps for Orange Free State, Transvaal, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith and Laing’s Nek; and King’s South Africa with two clasps. He was discharged at Bury on 21 March 1905 on the completion of his period of service.

With the onset of the Great War Harris re-enlisted at Manchester on 21 September 1914. As Private 21155 in the Hampshire Regiment he entered the Balkan theatre of war on 26 December 1915. His papers also record that he had previously served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and Royal Sussex Regiment. As a Serjeant (Acting Staff Serjeant) in the Hampshire Regiment he was mentioned in Lieutenant-General G. F. Milne’s despatches of 25 March 1918 (London Gazette 11 June 1918). Latterly served in the Labour Corps. Serjeant Harris was discharged as being no longer physically fit for war service on 3 October 1918 and awarded a Silver War Badge (not with lot).

With original M.I.D. certificate mounted on card; Parchment Certificate of Discharge 1905; Certificate of Discharge 1918; two group photographs; together with copied roll extracts, m.i.c., service notes and letter from the Fusiliers’ Museum, Bury.