Auction Catalogue

25 September 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 600

.

25 September 2008

Hammer Price:
£950

Three: Private E. Stevenson, Rifle Brigade, who was killed in action with the 2nd Battalion on the “First Day of the Somme” - the same fate suffered by two of his brothers on the same occasion

1914-15 Star
(Z-769 Pte., Rif. Brig.), single initial ‘F.’; British War and Victory Medals (Z-769 Pte., Rif. Brig.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Ernest Stevenson), good very fine or better (4) £250-300

Ernest Stevenson, who was born in Salford, Lancashire, was killed in action on the Somme on 1 July 1916, while serving in the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade. The following entry appears in the National Roll of Honour:

‘Volunteering in November 1914, he was embarked for France in the following January and there fought at Neuve Chapelle, St. Eloi, Hill 60, Ypres, Festubert and Loos, where he was wounded. Re-joining his unit on recovery, he served at Vimy Ridge and was unhappily killed in action during fierce fighting on the Somme on 1 July 1916. He was entitled to the 1914-15 Star and the General Service and Victory Medals. His life for his country, his soul for God. 4 Fern Street, Pendleton.’

Not mentioned, however, is the fact that Ernest’s brothers, Edward and Harold, also died on the 1 July 1916, both of them with the Lancashire Fusiliers - Edward in the 1st Battalion and and Harold in the 15th Battalion. Nor, too, the all too tragic fact that their mother learned of their fate by the very same post.

Ernest, who pre-war earned a ‘high reputation as a Northern Union footballer while playing for Swinton’ and was 25 years of age, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; the awards of Private Edward Dumphy, another native of Salford, whose regimental number was Z-768, are also included in the collection (see Lot 589).