Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

The 1914 Star to Company Sergeant Major J. Carty, Connaught Rangers, who was seperated from the rest of his battalion on 26 August 1914, was assisted to evade capture by Edith Cavell’s underground escape organisation, and subsequently killed in action in Mesopotamia on 18 April 1916

1914 Star (6683 C.Q.M. Sjt., 2/Conn: Rang.) good very fine £200-300

Sold with copy of m.i.c. which states that the British War and Victory Medals were returned under paragraph 1743 of The King’s Regulations, 1912. The relevant paragraph states ‘Medals which at the end of ten years still remain unclaimed... will be sent to the ordnance stores, Royal Dockyard (Medal Branch), Woolwich to be broken up.’

The name of Company Sergeant Major J. Carty appears on the ‘Hotel Register’ of Miss Cavell’s guests at the Clinique, where he stayed in April/May 1915 for about four days. Although Nurse Cavell’s underground escape organisation is credited with aiding many hundreds of allied servicemen to evade capture, this register, which lists the names of 67 British and French soldiers is probably the only means of positively identifying any of those she helped. See Edith Cavell, by Rowland Ryder, which mentions Carty several times.

Company Sergeant Major John Carty was born at Thurles and lived at Galway. He was killed in action in Mesopotamia on 18 April 1916, whilst serving with the 1st Battalion, Connaught Rangers. His name is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq. Sold with three photocopied pages from the regimental history giving a good account of the action in which he was killed.