Auction Catalogue

5 & 6 December 2018

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Live Online Auction

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Lot

№ 803

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6 December 2018

Hammer Price:
£1,500

Seven: Private T. Lewis, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, who served with the Mounted Infantry in South Africa during the Boer War, and was killed in action during the attack on St. Julien on 25 April 1915

Queen’s Sudan 1896-98 (4455. Pte. T. Lewis. 1/R. War: R.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast (4455 Drmr: T. Lewis, Rl. Warwick: Regt.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (4455 Pte. J. [sic] Lewis. Rl: Warwick: Regt.); 1914-15 Star (3335 Pte. T. Lewis. R. War: R.); British War and Victory Medals (3335 Pte. T. Lewis. R. War. R.); Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 2 clasps, The Atbara, Khartoum (No. 4455 Pte. T. Lewis 1st Royal Warwickshire Regt. 1898) contemporarily engraved naming; Memorial Plaque (Thomas Lewis) in card envelope of issue with Buckingham Palace enclosure, the pre-Great War medals mounted upon a florally engraved contemporary silver brooch bar, the Great War medals loose, contact marks, very fine, the Great War medals nearly extremely fine (8) £800-£1,200

Thomas Lewis was born in Chichester, Sussex, in 1877 and attested for the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1895. Posted to the 1st Battalion, he served in the re-conquest of the Sudan in 1898, and was present at the Battle of the Atbara and Omderman. Transferring to the 2nd Battalion, he served with them in South Africa during the Boer War, and was one of the 230 men of the Regiment that served as Mounted Infantry (only the Regiment’s Mounted Infantry element qualified for the King’s South Africa Medal).

Lewis was discharged in 1907, after 12 years’ service, but following the outbreak of the Great War re-enlisted in his old Regiment. He served with the 1st Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 3 December 1914, and was killed in action during the Battalion’s ill-fated attack at St. Julien on 25 April 1915, where the Regiment suffered over 200 men killed. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.

Sold with a postcard photograph of the recipient in the uniform of a member of the British Mounted Infantry from the Boer War period, and another group photograph.

Sold with copied medal roll extracts and other research.