Auction Catalogue

22 March 2010

Starting at 12:00 PM

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British Campaign and Gallantry Medals

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Lot

№ 137

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22 March 2010

Hammer Price:
£140

Six: attributed to Major H. G. Mason, Gloucestershire Regiment

1939-45 Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; Coronation 1937; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., officially dated ‘1944’, with three ‘G.VI.R.’ bars but lacking top brooch bar, mounted court style for wear, good very fine (6) £100-140

Herbert George Mason was born on 9 October 1908. After serving in the Cheltenham College O.T.C., Mason was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment on 10 November 1927. He served in “C” Company in Cheltenham and went to France with the Battalion in 1939. He took part in the Battle of Ledringhem, and was eventually evacuated at Dunkirk. He remained with the 5th Battalion and became second-in-command of the 43rd Recce Regiment. In 1943 he was posted to Allied Military Government in Italy, where he served until the end of the war. In 1947 he was one of the first officers to rejoin the reformed T.A. and became O.C. “A” Company 5th Glosters in Bristol. He resigned in 1954 due to his work as a Lands Commission Officer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a member of the Cotswold Hunt. Major Mason died on 31 March 1967, the cause being due to ‘Shock, due to Haemorrhage and facial fractures due to gun shot wounds self-inflicted’.

With recipient’s commission document, 1927; T.A. Embodiment Notice to Join, dated 1 September 1939, with envelope, addressed to ‘Capt. H. G. Mason, No 14 Area, A.M.W.D., 45 Westwood Road, Southampton’; Officer’s Record of Service booklet; 5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Old Comrades Association in Cheltenham Certificate of Appreciation to Major H. G. Mason, T.D., dated April 1947; two other cards re the Association; a studio photograph of the recipient with his signature; one other of the recipient in uniform with riband bar; three other photographs; a copy of
The Gloucestershire Parade; recipient’s Death Certificate, and copied research.