Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

British War Medal 1914-20 (2. Lieut. H. L. Heelis.) good very fine £50-70

Hillary Loraine Heelis was born in 1898, the nephew of the famous children’s author, Beatrix Potter, and was educated at Appleby and Windermere Grammar School. He joined the army in June 1916, serving in the ranks before receiving a commission into the Lancashire Fusiliers on 26 April 1917. He served during the Great War on the Western Front with the 10th (Service) Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers from June 1917, and was captured and taken prisoner of war on 4 June 1918 during a German raid on the 10th Battalion’s position at Beaumont Trench, near the Auchonvillers-Hamel road, on the Somme front. Heelis was 1 of 2 officers and 13 other ranks taken prisoner that day. He was incarcerated in Karlsruhe and Stralsund Dänholm Prisoner of War camps and repatriated on 21 January 1919. Following the War he lived in Bolton, where he died in 1938.