Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Transvaal, Orange Free State, South Africa 1901 (3175 Pte A. Handscombe. 18th Hussars.) unofficial rivets between clasps, edge bruising, very fine

Three: Private A. E. Handscombe, Royal West Kent Regiment, killed in action at Ypres, 25 March 1915
1914 Star (L-10007 Pte A. Handscombe. 1/R. W. Kent R.); British War and Victory Medals (L-10007 Pte. A. E. Handscombe. R. W. Kent R.) good very fine (4) £200-240

Albert Edward Charles Handscombe was born in 1865 in Newington, Middlesex, and attested for the 18th Hussars in 1887. In 1892, he was tried, convicted and imprisoned for 14 days for 'sleeping on his post' and forfeited the one good conduct badge he had earned in 1889. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 1893, but re-engaged in 1899 for service in the Boer War, before being discharged medically unfit on 3rd December 1901. He died in Chelsea in 1939, possibly as an in-pensioner of the Royal Hospital.

Albert Edwin Handscombe was born in 1895 in Walworth, Surrey, the son of Albert Edward Charles Handscombe and his wife Bertha Mary. He attested for the Royal West Kent Regiment at Tottenham, Middlesex, and served during the Great War with the 1st Battalion on the Western Front from 15 August 1914. He was killed in action on 25 March 1915 at Ypres.; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.