Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sergeant W. J. Bannister, Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex) Regiment, who was killed in action at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle on 14 March 1915

1914 Star, with copy clasp (L-10714 Cpl. W. J. Bannister 2/Middx: R.); British War and Victory Medals (L. 10714 Sjt. W. J. Bannister. Midd’x R.); Memorial Plaque (William James Bannister) in card envelope, good very fine (4) £180-£220

William James Bannister was born in Hampstead, London and attested for the 5th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Militia) on 11 September 1905 giving his age as 18 years and 1 month. He transferred to the regular army and in 1911 was serving as a Lance Corporal with the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, stationed at Guadaloupe Barracks at Bordon, East Hampshire. Based in Malta at the outbreak of war in August 1914, the 2nd Battalion returned to England the following month. Shortly thereafter they were ordered to France, Bannister arriving there with his Battalion on 7 November 1914.

Bannister was killed in action on 14 March 1915 at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. The 2nd Middlesex, together with the 2nd Cameronians, had sustained particularly heavy casualties in this, their first major action of the war. Another Sergeant of the 2nd Middlesex, William Siddons, who was injured during the attack, gave the following account to the Daily Record on 19 March 1915:
‘The bombardment ceased at five minutes past eight, and the infantry attack was opened…the first German trench was eighty yards away. “As we rushed forward,” he said, “we could only see heads and bayonets, but one brave German officer mounted the parapet of his trench and was immediately shot in the stomach.”
“The losses on both sides were terrible. The German trenches were a terrible sight. They were filled with dead. We suffered badly as well. Neither our first nor our second platoon reached the German trenches, but the others took about two hundred prisoners. The 2nd Middlesex had about 750 casualties, and only four of our officers were uninjured; Colonel Hayes was wounded by shrapnel. I was shot in the foot during the charge.”’

The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects gives Bannister’s date of death as 10 March 1914, the date of the initial attack. He was most likely reported missing in action on that date and later given an official date of death of 14 March 1914. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Le Touret Memorial, France.