Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Second Lieutenant C. E. H. Loxton, North Staffordshire Regiment, who died of wounds, Flanders, 23 May 1915

1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., N. Staff. R.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.); Memorial Plaque (Charles Edward Holden Loxton) extremely fine (4) £400-500

Charles Edward Holden Loxton was born in Walsall on 3 June 1892, the eldest son of Charles Adshead Loxton, Solicitor and Emily Clara Holden. He was educated at Sandroyd School, Stanmore; Harrow and University College, Oxford. He was student at the Inner Temple and after passing Moderations with honours (Classics) at Oxford, became a student also at the faculty of medicine and surgery. Upon the outbreak of war he volunteered for service and was gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment in August 1914. He went to France on 3 March 1915. He was mortally wounded near Wulverghem on 23 May 1915. Soon after midnight he was with his men repairing some wiring in front of a trench when he was struck by a bullet. He died in the ambulance on the way to hospital. Lieutenant Loxton was buried at Neuve Eglise, Belgium.

His commanding officer wrote of him: ‘He was certainly the bravest man I have seen out here, and endeared himself to all of us. We did our best to make him more cautious, but he would set the example - as he did to all of us - to his platoon, and he made them into a splendid lot of men.’

The President of the Officer’s Mess wrote: ‘I need only say that he was universally beloved by both officers and men, and his platoon would have done anything for him and followed him anywhere, and by his splendid behaviour in the face of danger he has left us a grand example.’

The Platoon Sergeant wrote of him: ‘In any work one or more of us were engaged in, he was always ready with a helping hand, thus in no small way in his capacity of an officer, displaying his desire to encourage us, and he always proved himself to be of an unselfish and thoughtful disposition.’

With a photograph of the recipient; a modern photograph of his headstone and copied research.