Orders, Decorations and Medals

British War Medal 1914-20 (2 Lieut. F. G. Plant); Victory Medal 1914-19 (T-205185 Pte. W. T. White, The Queen’s R.) good very fine (2) £60-80

2nd Lieutenant Frederic George Plant, 1st Battalion The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), was killed in action on 25 September 1915, aged 22 years. Having no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. He was the son of Mr and Mrs William Plant of ‘Courtlands’, Hayes, Kent. Sold with a copied photograph and a copied newspaper extract reporting on the death of Lieutenant Plant. A letter from Major L. M. Crofts stated:

‘I am writing on behalf of the Commanding Officer to try and express our very great sorrow on the loss of your son .... He is officially reported wounded and missing, but I regret to say , from what I can learn, it is almost certain he was killed instantaneously. He was leading his men up a communication trench leading from the German first line trench, which we had captured, when a German bomb exploded, and hit him in the head, and the men near say he must have been killed at once, though no one saw him afterwards. ....’

William Thomas White was born in Lambeth, lived at Beckenham and enlisted at Bromley. Serving with the 8th Battalion The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), he died of wounds on 31 July 1917, aged 36 years. Having no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. He was the son of Thomas and Clara White of Balfour Road, Bromley Common, Kent, and husband of Ethel Elizabeth White of 16 Faversham Road, Beckenham.