Auction Catalogue

2 April 2003

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. Including a superb collection of medals to the King’s German Legion, Police Medals from the Collection of John Tamplin and a small collection of medals to the Irish Guards

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 101

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2 April 2003

Hammer Price:
£160

Five: Sapper R. McKay, Royal Engineers, late Shetland Companies, The Gordon Highlanders

British War and Victory Medals (195363 Spr., R.E.); Coronation 1937; Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (46 Cpl., Shetl’d Cos. Gord. Hdrs.); Imperial Service Medal, G.V.R. (Robert McKay) surname spelt ‘MacKay’ and number officially corrected on the fourth, one or two edge bruises and polished, otherwise generally very fine (5) £150-200

After the transformation of the old Volunteer Force into the Territorial Army in 1908, the volunteers in the Shetlands Islands, who had been part of the old 7th Volunteer Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders, were formed into two independent Companies of the Gordons, not attached to any particular Battalion. On the outbreak of the Great War, these Companies were sent to the Western Front, but were so decimated in 1915 that they were eventually distributed amongst other units in their Division, the majority going to the Royal Engineers. McKay, however, would appear to have arrived in France at a later date, his MIC entry merely giving details of service as a Sapper, R.E.