Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

Five: Lieutenant-Colonel H. L. Mercer, Royal Artillery

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Palestine 1945-48, Malaya (Major, R.A.) generally good very fine (5) £250-300

Henry Lindsay Mercer was born in January 1908 and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a 2nd Lieutenant in February 1928. Advanced to Captain in July 1938, he served as an Adjutant (T.A.) of the 87th (1st West Lancashire) Field Regiment, R.A. between January and September 1939, and is known to have been taken P.O.W. later on in the War, ultimately being incarcerated in the notorious Spagenberg Castle, just south of Kassel. It is interesting to speculate whether his M.I.D. was the result of activities in captivity, several men listed in the same London Gazette on 25 October 1945 also having been P.O.Ws. Mercer, who had been advanced to Major in February 1945, remained a regular at the end of hostilities and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in July 1950. He died in April 1973.