Orders, Decorations and Medals

Victory Medal 1914-19 (6065 Pte. A. Emery, C. Gds.) nearly extremely fine £20-30

Albert Emery lived with his father William, mother Sarah, brother Frank and sister Shirley in The Street (opposite Woodlands) in the village of Chilcompton, Near Bath, Somerset. A Gardener by occupation, he enlisted into the Grenadier Guards on 2 February 1905. With them he served in Egypt, September 1906-January 1908. After his mandatory three years service he came back to England and was discharged on 30 January 1908 to begin his Reserve Service. As soon as war broke out he was called back to London and was mobilized on 6 August 1914. Six days later he sailed with his battalion - the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards to France.

As part of the 4th Guards Brigade the 3rd Battalion were immediately engaged in the intense fighting of 1914. By the end of November the Official Historian states “The Battalion’s total casualties since leaving England as 11 officers and 182 other ranks killed or died of wounds, 21 officers, 560 other ranks wounded and 1 officer and 11 other ranks taken prisoner. Just 4 of the original officers had not become casualties.” On 18 November 1914 Lance-Corporal George Harry Wyatt of the Battalion was awarded the V.C. for his actions at Landrecies on the 24/25 August. Albert Emery survived these actions and was appointed a Lance-Corporal on 1 February 1915.

In June 1916 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards was preparing for the Somme offensive at Brielin in Belgium when, on 27 June 1916, there was an “accident” and Lance-Corporal Emery was wounded by a bomb in the forearm and shoulder. He was evacuated to the 12th Casualty Clearing Station at Hazebrouck, but on 10 July 1916, aged 31, he died from ”Pleuro-Pneumonia” and was buried in the Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery. With copied service papers, m.i.c. and modern photograph of his headstone.