Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Sergeant J. A. Bailey, Royal Fusiliers, who was killed in action in February 1917

Military Medal, G.V.R. (7521 Sjt. J. A. Bailey, 11/R. Fus.); 1914-15 Star (7521 Pte. J. A. Bailey, R. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (GS-7521 Sjt. J. A. Bailey, R. Fus.), together with Bronze Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (James Alfred Bailey), generally good very fine (5) £500-600

M.M. London Gazette 21 December 1916.

James Alfred Bailey first went to France as a Private in the 11th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in late July 1915. His subsequent award of the M.M. was likely in respect of his unit’s part in the Battle of the Somme, not least on 1 July 1916 when, in the company of the 7th Bedfordshires, it led an attack up the southern face of the Mametz Spur. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting ensued throughout the day, at Maple Trench, Pommiers Redoubt, Beetle Alley and White Trench, the 11th Battalion suffering 227 casualties.

Bailey was subsequently killed in action on 17 February 1917, aged 30 years. He left a widow, Mrs. C. E. Bailey of 17 Newark Road, Croydon, Surrey, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; sold with original Record Office forwarding letter for his 1914-15 Star, dated 17 June 1920, together with an ‘In Memoriam’ card ‘In Affectionate Remembrance of My Beloved Husband’, with embossed Royal Fusiliers crest to front cover; a silk souvenir postcard and a copied photograph of the recipient with his wife and children.