Orders, Decorations and Medals

A pair of Great War Memorial Medallions awarded to Second Lieutenant John Whyte Somerville, Royal Marine Light Infantry

Great War Memorial Medallion (2), by A. Drury, obverse: Minerva tending a fallen naked male figure, reverse: a soldier and sailor with arms reversed, by a plaque, inscribed, ‘In loving memory 2nd Lt. John Whyte Somerville (R.M.L.I.) (France) 22nd June 1916’, 80mm., silver; another, with a similar inscription, 44mm., silver, this in case of issue (Ref. B.H.M. 4150), edge bruising, good very fine (2) £80-100

2nd Lieutenant John Whyte Somerville, joined the Base Depot R.N.D. at Mudros on 26 February 1916 and was Assistant Adjutant R.N.D. Base Depot, 28 February-5 March 1916. He joined the 2nd Royal Marine Battalion, R.N.D. on 25 April 1916. Departing Mudros on 7 May 1916, he arrived at Marseilles on 12 May. 2nd Lieutenant Somerville was wounded in action on 21 June 1916 and was killed in action the next day, the War Diary recording that he was ‘killed about 3.15 p.m. by trench mortar’. He was buried in the Bois-de-Noulette British Cemetery, Aix-Noilette, France. He was the son of Robert and Ann Jane Somerville, of Glencairn, Dalkeith, Midlothian.

Sold with a letter with sketches written by Somerville dated 14 June 1916; also with a memorial card, a copied portrait photograph and copied research.