Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An unusual Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Private S. J. Skuse, 2nd Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, who, having had a death sentence for cowardice commuted to 10 years penal servitude in November 1916, won his freedom for bravery in the Field on 12 May 1917

Military Medal, G.V.R. (21332 Pte. S. J. Skuse. 2/Wilts. R.);1914-15 Star (21332 Pte. S. J. Skuse, Wilts. R.); British War and Victory Medals (21332 Pte. S. J. Skuse, Wilts. R.), the first with edge bruising at 6 o’clock, contact marks overall, otherwise generally nearly very fine or better (4) £1200-1500

M.M. London Gazette 20 August 1919.

Sidney J. Skuse, a native of Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire, was born in 1896, and first entered the France / Flanders theatre of war on 8 December 1915. His Medal Index Card entry also reveals that he was convicted of desertion on 18 October 1916 and sentenced to death, a punishment subsequently commuted to 10 years penal servitude. As cited above, however, the same source confirms that the sentence was ‘suspended for gallantry on 12.5.17.’

His entry in Death Sentences Passed by Military Courts of the British Army 1914-1924, by Gerard Oram, lists him as a member of the 19th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, who was sentenced to death for cowardice on 13 November 1916, a sentence subsequently commuted to 10 years penal servitude. As confirmed in an accompanying letter from the author, Skuse’s name in the relevant Court Martial register follows on from those of a number of men in the Manchester Regiment and his allocation to that unit was likely a clerical error.

Skuse was transferred to the Class ‘Z’ Reserve at the War’s end and died on 3 September 1996; sold with copied research.