Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Gunner P. H. Whitehead, Royal Artillery, killed in action on the Cherbourg peninsula, 17 June 1940

India General Service 1936-39, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1936-37 (835697 Gnr. P. H. Whitehead. R.A.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (835697 Gnr. P. H. Whitehead. R.A.); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, extremely fine (4) £240-280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Second World War Casualties.

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Percy Hoper Whitehead, of Dymchurch, Kent, served with the 71st Field Regiment, Royal Artillery in France during the Second World War, and was part of the small group of British, French, and North African troops who held back the rapidly advancing German Army in 1940 long enough to enable some 30,000 allied soldiers to withdraw from Cherbourg back to England. He was killed in action on 17 June 1940, when the lorry he was in ran over a mine at Denneville, Normandy, killing eight of the nine occupants. He is buried in Denneville Churchyard, France, and is also commemorated on a Memorial at Denneville recording the incident (which gives the date of 18 June 1940).