Orders, Decorations and Medals

Nine: Sgt. Major R. Sturges, Coldstream Guards.

DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL, G.V.R.; QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, 5 clasps, C.C., O.F.S., Johan., D.H., Belf.; KING'S SOUTH AFRICA, 2 clasps (Pte.); 1914 STAR and Mons Bar (B.S.M.); BRITISH WAR and VICTORY MEDALS; DEFENCE MEDAL; LONG SERVICE & GOOD CONDUCT, G.V.R. Type I; CADET FORCES MEDAL, G.VI.R. Type 2 with extra Long Service Bar, very fine (9)

D.C.M., Army Orders 193 Rewards for officers and Soldiers for services in the Field and for services rendered in captivity or in attempting to escape or escaping.

The following extract is taken from 'The Tonbridgian’, 'May 1955: Many old Tonbridgians will learn with sorrow that Sgt. Major Richard Sturges died on Sunday, February 27th, at the age of seventy-three. At his retirement in 1945 he had been an instructor with the School contingent for twenty-six years and for the last nine of them its R.S.M. As a young soldier in the Coldstream Guards he served in the South African War. In 1914 with the British Expeditionary Force, he earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his gallantry at Mons. He was captured and was then for some years a prisoner of war. His stength of character and power of leadership among his fellow-prisoners, and his insistence on their rights, brought him prison punishments; but it is known that the German authorities recognized the qualities which he showed and gave him opportunity to put into effect the views which he had expressed. In 1919, after twenty-one years' service and the award of the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, he joined the School contingent of what was then the Officers' Training Corps, and in 1936 became its R.S.M. During the last war, although nearly sixty, he joined the Tonbridge Home Guard and, as a Company Sergeant-Major, was responsible for the training of some hundreds of local men, an arduous task made easier by the high regard in which he was held in the town. He retired from the School in 1945, and shortly afterwards was awarded the Cadet Force Medal.’