Miniature Medals

Four: Captain C. A. French, Royal Irish Regiment, late Imperial Yeomanry, who died of wounds in June 1915

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Lieut., Imp. Yeo.); 1914 Star, with clasp (Capt., R. Ir. Regt.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.) good very fine (4) £500-600

Claude Alexander French was born in May 1881, and educated at Shrewsbury and Trinity College, Dublin. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Londonderry Artillery Militia in March 1900, and transferred to the Imperial Yeomanry in April 1901. He served in South Africa with the 35th (Middlesex) Company, 11th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, and was dangerously wounded at Tweefontein, near Bethlehem, on Christmas Day 1901.

He served in France and Flanders with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, and was wounded in October 1914, at Pilley. He rejoined his regiment at the front on 12 January 1915, and on 8 May was seriously wounded by a shell. He succumbed to his wounds in the Australian Hospital at Wimeraux on 1 June 1915.