Auction Catalogue

19 & 20 March 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 1481

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20 March 2008

Hammer Price:
£390

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. group of four awarded to Serjeant B. E. Pearce, Royal Army Medical Corps

Military Medal, G.V.R. (36420 Sjt., 43/F.A. R.A.M.C.); 1914-15 Star (36420 Sjt., R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (36420 Sjt., R.A.M.C.); together with a Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes War Commemorative Medal 1914-19 (Bro. B. Pearce M.M.), with enamelled ‘RAOB’ ribbon emblem and top bar, good very fine and better (5) £300-350

M.M. London Gazette 21 December 1916

Benjamin Ernest Pearce, serving with the 43rd Field Ambulance R.A.M.C., entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 21 May 1915. He was subsequently awarded the M.M. for bravery in the field, being notified of his award on 11 October 1916.

In a newspaper cutting it was reported, ‘Sergeant Ben Pearce, R.A.M.C., son of Mr and Mrs Pearce of 54, Ashcroft Road, Cirencester, has this week returned to France after a few days’ special leave, granted in view of his having been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery in the field. For 21 consecutive days during the Somme battle he led his ambulance to and from the firing line conveying wounded to shelter over a distance of more than four miles, under continuous and heavy shell fire, his gallant work receiving recognition in the above reward. Sergeant Pearce who was formerly engaged with Messrs. Whatley and Co., of Cirencester, is the eldest of four brothers, all of whom volunteered for service early in the war, and all of whom are now serving abroad. ... He joined the R.A.M.C. from the Red Cross camp in Earl Bathurst’s Park in August, 1914, and in less than four months had been promoted to the rank of sergeant, while yet short of his 21st birthday. Sergeant Pearce was for several years of the 1st Cirencester Company Boys’ Brigade, becoming a sergeant and eventually lieutenant in that corps, holding the latter rank at the time of his enlistment, and the training received in the ranks of the Brigade has proved of the utmost value in his military career’.

A second newspaper cutting reported that three of the brothers were awarded the Military Medal. A third cutting reports on the coroner’s inquiry into the death of Benjamin Pearce. He died in Cirencester Memorial Hospital in March 1924 following a motor cycle collision. A verdict of accidental death was recorded. Sold with a folder containing newspaper cuttings and copied m.i.c. and war diary extracts.

For a group to one of his brothers, see Lot 1148.