Auction Catalogue

8 & 9 May 2019

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 50 x

.

8 May 2019

Hammer Price:
£5,000

An Albert Medal for Land awarded to Second Lieutenant S. M. Reekie, M.M., Royal Fusiliers, for gallantry in saving life following a military training accident at Newmarket on 19 July 1918- he deliberately entered the bomb pit and shielded his pupil from the blast, sustaining significant wounds in the process

Albert Medal, 2nd Class, for Gallantry in Saving Life on Land, bronze and enamel, the reverse officially engraved ‘Presented by His Majesty to 2nd. Lieut. Stanley Martin Reekie, M.M., Royal Fusiliers, for Gallantry in saving life at Newmarket on the 19th. July, 1918.’, in case of issue, extremely fine £6,000-£8,000

Provenance: Sotheby’s, November 1977.

A.M.
London Gazette 15 October 1918:
‘At Newmarket, on the 19th July 1918, a bomb thrown during practice failed to clear the parapet and rolled back into the pit. The man who had thrown it lost his head, and instead of running out of the pit ran into a corner away from the entrance. Second Lieutenant Reekie, the bombing officer, who was in a position of safety, saw that there was no time to get the man out of the pit, and deliberately entered the pit and stood between the man and the bomb, shielding him with his body. The bomb exploded and the officer was seriously wounded, but the man escaped injury.’

Stanley Martin Reekie attested for the Royal Fusiliers and served with the 13th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 30 July 1915. Advanced Acting Sergeant, he was awarded the Military Medal, before being commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers on 1 May 1918, and was posted to the 51st (Graduated) Battalion, which since March 1918 had been part of 204th Brigade, 68th Division based at Newmarket. For his gallantry whilst serving as bombing officer during a training session at Newmarket he was awarded the Albert Medal. He was presented with his Albert Medal by H.M. the King at Buckingham Palace on 21 December 1918, and relinquished his commission on the cessation of hostilities.

Sold with a newspaper cutting reporting the presentation of his Albert Medal.