Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Eight: J. E. Weatherly, a Livery Porter at Windsor Castle and late 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Berkshire Regiment

British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.); Defence Medal 1939-45; Royal Victorian Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, silver; Coronation 1911, Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Royal Household Faithful Service Medal, G.V.R., suspension dated ‘1911-1931’, with Bars for “Thirty Years” and “Forty Years”, the reverses of which are officially inscribed ‘G.R. VI’ (J. E. Weatherley), new ribands but otherwise mounted court-style as worn, together with a Silver War Badge (No. 211359), a pair of metal ‘E.VIII.R.’ cypher badges and an enamelled roundel also bearing ‘E.VIII.R.’ cypher, the first two official but slightly later issues with second initial ‘B.’ on the Victory Medal, somewhat polished, otherwise generally very fine (12)
£400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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John Edward Weatherly was born in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire in September 1885 and entered the Royal Household as an Assistant Lamplighter in April 1911, in time to receive the Coronation Medal, and would remain employed all his life by the Royal Household with the exception of military service in the Great War - he enlisted in November 1915, served in the ranks of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and Army Service Corps, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment in June 1918, and was wounded in the Allied advance on 21-22 September. Weatherly, who also saw action at Steinbeck, Langemark, Pilgrim Ridge and Armentieres, relinquished his commission in September 1921, but did not claim his British War & Victory Medals until December 1926. Returning to his former duties in the Royal Household, he was appointed Second Lamplighter in March 1922 and an Usher of the Servant’s Hall in the following year. Awarded the Royal Household Faithful Service Medal in 1931 and the Jubilee Medal in 1935, he was appointed a Livery Porter at Windsor Castle in October of the latter year, initially at the Trade Door, but shortly afterwards at George IV Gate.

And further accolades followed, for in addition to the Coronation Medal of 1937, he received the “Thirty Years” and “Forty Years” Bars to his Household Medal in April 1941 and April 1951, and the Royal Victorian Medal in silver in January 1943. Moreover, he was also awarded the Italian Royal Service Medal of Victor Emanuel III in bronze in 1924 and the French Medal of Honour in silver in May 1927. Weatherly finally retired in July 1951 and died at the King Edward VII Hospital in Old Windsor in October 1962, aged 77 years; sold with related research, together with the original box of issue for his (absent) French award and two or three original photographs, one of the latter depicting him with Douglas Bader at the George IV Gate, Windsor.