Orders, Decorations and Medals Including five Special Collections

Three: Captain A. B. Lane, K.O.Y.L.I., B.S.A.P., Rand Light Infantry, South African Infantry and Rifle Brigade, a Cambrai casualty

British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Rhodesia 1896, clasp, Mashonaland 1897 (123 Troopr., B.S.A.P.) clasp loose on ribbon; British War and Victory Medals (Capt.) good very fine or better (3) £350-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of of Great War Medals to the Rifle Brigade.

View
Collection

Arthur Bloomfield Lane was born at Mysore, India, son of Wilmot Lane of the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Haileybury and Sandhurst and commissioned in the K.O.Y.L.I. in 1894, but resigned his commission in 1896 and went to South Africa, joining the B.S.A.P. as a Trooper and serving in the Matabele and Mashona risings of 1896-97 (medal and clasp confirmed on roll). He was afterwards a farmer. He took no part in the Boer War but in 1914 was commissioned Lieutenant in the Rand Light Infantry, with whom he participated in the campaign in German South-West Africa. Promoted Captain 2 January 1915. He went to the South African Reserve Battalion at Aldershot 1915-16 then posted to the 3rd Regiment, South African Infantry and joined them in France on 3 August 1916 as “A” Company commander. He was in several severe fights on the Somme, notably at the Butte de Warlencourt. During the severe Somme fighting he was compelled to testify to his C.O. that another company commander “had a bottle of rum in the dug-out that night, and what he drank, combined with the shock he had had that day, appeared to unsettle him altogether, and as senior officer present it was quite impossible to get instructions from him…” But, when the officer concerned was court-martialed Lane refused to testify against him to this effect in court. Incensed, the battalion commander ordered that Lane himself be court martialed for “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.” He was found guilty, severely reprimanded and lost one years seniority. He was also posted out of his battalion to the Depot and ultimately left the South Africans: his file was marked “Not to be employed in Union Defence Forces without Ministerial Special Sanction.” He obtained a commission in the Rifle Brigade, with which he had family connections, and joined the 10th (Service) Battalion in France in June 1917. He commanded “A” Company at Passchendaele, including the forcing of the Steenbeeck and capture of Langemarck, then again at Cambrai. On 20 November 1917 the battalion advanced for some miles to Les Rue des Vignes. A series of battlefield messages survive in the War Diary, including one from Lane himself stating that he had reached his objective, 11 p.m. on the evening of the attack. Early the next morning the O.C. “D” Company sent a message back: “Right flank entirely in air. ‘A’ Company attempting to form defensive flank here. LANE badly wounded.” Shortly after this message was sent the Germans outflanked the 10th R.B. and the three companies were withdrawn. Lane was left behind and later appeared on a German official list forwarded to the War Office through the Red Cross: “Fell 21.11.17 North of the Rue des Vignes.” The Germans later sent his identity discs to the War Office. Captain Lane has no known grave and is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial. While Lane was in France with the Rifle Brigade the wheels of justice rumbled on and in October 1917 the Secretary of State for War advised that his conviction be quashed as his conduct in the matter of evidence “does not disclose an offense under the Army Act; to hold otherwise might unduly interfere with the freedom of witnesses in giving their evidence.”

With several copy photos. & substantial research including copies of the court martial papers which contain much information on Lane’s services on the Somme and elsewhere.

Additionally entitled to 1914-15 Star.