Auction Catalogue

25 & 26 June 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 1008

.

26 June 2008

Hammer Price:
£1,100

Three: Private H. Fourro, 20th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, one of the “Fighting Fourro” brothers from Burwood, New South Wales, who died of wounds in France in October 1917

1914-15 Star
(2364 Pte., 20/Bn. A.I.F.); British War and Victory Medals (2364 Pte., 20 Bn. A.I.F.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Harry Fourro), in their card boxes of issue, together with wartime local newspaper death announcement cutting, and a silk 20th Battalion uniform patch, extremely fine (5) £200-250

Harry Fourro was born in England but came to Australia with his parents at an early age, where they settled at Burwood in New South Wales, and was one of five brothers who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force - hence their local sobriquet “The Fighting Fourros” and a feature published in the Sydney Mail in April 1917 (relevant photocopy included).

Harry enlisted in July 1915 and, via the Egyptian theatre of war, where he joined the 20th Battalion, arrived in France. Severely wounded near Ypres on 18 October 1917, he died a few days later at No. 83 General Hospital and was buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. Sergeant R. G. Wiles of No. 7 Platoon later stated that he ‘saw a shell hit him and he fell badly wounded - his own stretcher bearers picked him up and took him to a Casualty Clearing Station’, while the C.O. of No. 83 General Hospital reported that Fourro was admitted with severe head wounds: ‘He was but semi-conscious on admission. The X-ray showed the presence of as many as 13 foreign bodies in the cranium. His condition was far too unsatisfactory for an operation to be attempted and was hopeless. He remained semi-conscious until his death on 21 October 1917.’