Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Corporal J. R. Day, Royal Marines

British War Medal 1914-20 (PO. 20581 Pte., R.M.L.I.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue (PO. 20581 Mne., R.M.), together with National Rifle Association Bisley Prize Embroidered Badges (2), for 1933 and 1939, and an impressive array of Royal Marines Rifle Association and other Shooting Medals (44), silver and bronze, the majority named and / or dated, and many with engraved bars (see illustration), the whole mounted for display in a large glazed frame, good very fine and better (Lot) £250-300

John Richard Day was born in Handsworth, Staffordshire in December 1900 and enlisted in the Royal Marines Light Infantry in Birmingham in March 1918. Posted to ‘D’ Company at the R.M. Recruit Depot in Deal, he underwent basic training prior to joining the Portsmouth Division that October - and was accordingly entitled to a single British War Medal 1914-20.

Between the wars he enjoyed a number of seagoing appointments, the battleships Malaya and Nelson among them, in addition to a stint of service in Shanghai in 12th Royal Marines Battalion in 1927 - so, too, notable success on the rifle range, not least at Bisley in 1933 and 1939. Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in February 1934, and advanced to Corporal in December 1939, Day served in the U.K. in the 1939-45 War and was finally released in September 1945; sold with brief research.