Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Sergeant F. M. Chaplin, 1st and 53rd Battalions, Australian Imperial Force, who was wounded in Gallipoli in August 1915 and on the Somme in July 1916

1914-15 Star (2175 Pte., 1/Bn. A.I.F.); British War and Victory Medals (2175 Sgt., 1 Bn. A.I.F.), the first gilded, generally very fine (3) £150-200

Frank Merriott Chaplin, who was born in South Norwood, Surrey, and who settled in Paddington, Sydney as a butcher, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force in April 1915. Embarked for Gallipoli that June, he was wounded in the hip by a grenade in August and evacuated to Mudros, and thence to Australia. Having then re-enlisted in Sydney - and retained his original number - Chaplin joined the 53rd Battalion in France as a Sergeant and was wounded in the leg at Pozieres on the Somme in July 1916 and evacuated to the U.K. Then, following a further stint of active service in France from July 1917, and another period of hospitalization in the U.K., he was embarked for Australia and discharged in April 1919.