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Lot

№ 117

.

17 May 2016

Hammer Price:
£1,900

A Great War M.M. Bourlon Wood 1918 operations group of four awarded to Private A. Mercier, 14th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Royal Montreal Regiment), who was twice wounded in action

Military Medal, G.V.R. (23211 Pte. A. Mercier, 14/Quebec R.); 1914-15 Star (23211 Pte. A. Mercier, 14/Can. Inf.); British War and Victory Medals (23211 Pte. A. Mercier, 14-Can. Inf.), very fine (4) £600-800

M.M. London Gazette 3 July 1919.

Arthur Mercier was born at Thetford Mines, Quebec in September 1893 and enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force in September 1914. Initially drafted to the 12th Battalion Canadian Infantry, he transferred to the 14th Battalion in France in May 1915 but was invalided to England after receiving a gunshot wound to his left shoulder and face in May 1916.

Having then rejoined his unit in the Field in August of the same year, he was wounded in the left leg and chest in May 1917 and once again invalided to England. Finally, in late September 1918, after rejoining the 14th, he won his M.M. for gallantry in the attack on Bourlon Wood, which distinction was approved in a Divisional Order dated 9 November 1918. He was discharged at Montreal in January 1919; sold with copied research including service records and war diary extracts.