Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain R. M. Derry, Monmouthshire Regiment, seconded 53rd (Welsh) Division Cyclist Corps, who was mentioned in despatches for his services in the latter corps in Egypt and Palestine in 1917: he had earlier been evacuated home after a gas attack at Ypres in May 1915

1914-15 Star (Lieut. R. M. Derry, Mon. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. R. M. Derry), together with a gold locket with interior photograph of the recipient, the outer case bearing the badge of the 3rd Monmouthshires, nearly very fine or better (4) £240-280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to Welsh Regiments formed by the Late Llewellyn Lord.

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Reginald Morris Derry, who was educated at Wellington College, was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment (Territorial Force) in September 1914 and was embarked for France in February 1915, where he served in ‘A’ Company and quickly saw action. A letter from one of his men, Sergeant A. F. Davies, was published in the Abergavenny Chronicle in June 1915, in which he describes the unit’s terrible losses at Ypres in early May, and pays homage to Derry as ‘one of the best’, who helped him after he had been gassed. Their trenches at this time were ‘about three feet deep and up over the tops of our boots in water, with no room to turn’. As it transpired, Derry himself ‘got very run down’ - no doubt on account of the same gas attack - and was evacuated home in late May 1915.

He subsequently joined the 53rd (Welsh) Division Cyclist Corps, in which capacity he witnessed active service in Egypt and Palestine 1916-18 and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 12 January 1918, refers). A modest - and humourous - account of his time in Palestine appears in A Record of the 53rd (Welsh) Divisional Cyclist Company 1915-19. Entitled ‘The Beersheba Stunt’, it describes his mounting despair in the advance on Jerusalem, largely on account of poor guides, numerous scorpions and endless desert dust.

Derry relinquished his commission in September 1921; sold with copied research.