Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A poignant family group to brothers:

Three: Company Sergeant-Major T. McLeod, Norfolk Regiment, who was killed in action on the Somme in Oct 1916

1914-15 Star (14079 Sjt., Norf. R.); British War and Victory Medals (14079 W.O. Cl. 2, Norf. R.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Thomas McLeod), and metalled identity disc, the plaque polished, otherwise extremely fine

Pair: Private W. McLeod, Norfolk Regiment, who died of wounds in May 1917

British War and Victory Medals (22234 Pte., Norf. R.), together with related Memorial Plaque (William McLeod), the plaque polished, otherwise extremely fine

Pair: Private C. J. McLeod, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

British War & Victory Medals (22578 Pte., Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.), these with occasional edge bruising and polished, nearly very fine or better (10) £500-600

Thomas Colin McLeod was born at the Royal Mews, Pimlico in February 1893, the eldest son of Thomas, a Footman in the Royal Household, and was placed in the care of the Brighton Home for Orphan Boys in 1898, Queen Victoria paying for his maintenance there. Young Thomas himself entered Royal Service as a Footman in 1914, a short lived appointment for he enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment that September, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. One of five royal servants to be posted to the 8th Battalion, he was clearly an excellent soldier, and had risen to the rank of Company Sergeant-Major by the time of his death in action on the Somme on 21 October 1916. No better testament to his wartime career survives than that written by his C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel H. de L. Ferguson, as related by him in a letter to Sir Derek Keppel, Master of the Royal Household:

‘It is with profound regret I am writing to let you know that C.S.M. McLeod of my battalion was killed on 21 October in the attack on Regina Trench. He went forward with the 4th wave of the attack and was killed whilst gallantly leading his men against a strongpoint where the enemy were holding out in some strength. He captured the position and fell just as his task was finished. He is the last of His Majesty’s five servants that originally joined my battalion from the Household and in every way lived up to the splendid standard of courage and devotion that these five men at all times showed.

He joined as a Private and rose to the rank of Company Sergeant-Major and his death is a great loss to my battalion. He was wounded on the 1 July and had returned to duty to once again carry on his duties. When you came out to France with His Majesty last August, and my battalion had the honour to be inspected by His Majesty the King, you asked me to let you know how Sergeant McLeod went on from time to time, and I then did not think that the first opportunity I would have of doing so would be under these sad circumstances. It is entirely due to having men of the stamp of Sergeant McLeod that my battalion has done so well in the many heavy actions it has gone through since the continuous fighting we have undertaken since 1 July. Sergeant McLeod was buried just outside Regina Trench and a Cross marks his last resting place.’

Alas, that resting place must have been lost in a subsequent action, for today Thomas has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

William Findlay McLeod was born at the Royal Mews, Pimlico in January 1894, the second son of Thomas, still then serving as a Footman in the Royal Household. Enlisting in his brother’s regiment, the Norfolks, he was originally posted to the 9th Battalion, but by the time of his death as a result wounds on 12 May 1917, was also a member of the 8th Battalion. He most likely fell victim to the ‘good deal of hostile shelling’ inflicted on his battalion in trenches near Vis-en-Artois on the previous day - 77mm. shells fired from a range not exceeding 3,500 yards. He was buried in Bucquoy Road Cemetery.

Cyril John McLeod was born in Windsor in August 1897, the youngest son of Thomas. Nothing further is known of his subsequent service in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, service that resulted in him being awarded the British War & Victory Medals (his MIC entry refers).

Sold with an original portrait photograph of Company Sergeant-Major Thomas McLeod, a wartime carbon copy of the letter sent by Lieutenant-Colonel H. de L. Ferguson to Sir Derek Keppel, and a file of research, including copied war diary extracts and correspondence with the Royal Archives at Windsor.