Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sergeant A. E. Wilkins, 27th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, who died of wounds in France in September 1918

1914-15 Star (481 Pte. A. E. Wilkins, 27/Bn. A.I.F.); British War and Victory Medals (481 Sjt. A. E. Wilkins. 27 Bn. A.I.F.) some verdigris to the last, otherwise good very fine (3) £100-£140

Alfred Ernest Wilkins was born at Strathalbyn, South Australia, and enlisted on 8 February 1915, aged 27 years 10 months. Posted to the 27th Battalion, he landed on the Gallipoli peninsula on 22 September 1915. He was admitted to hospital with influenza on 17 October 1915, and thereafter evacuated to Mudros and onwards to Egypt where he contracted mumps. A further spell in hospital for deformity of toes in April 1916 and he eventually rejoined the 27th Battalion in France on 6 July 1916. He was evacuated sick with influenza on 29 January 1917, initially to Rouen and then to England where he arrived on 25 February 1917. He rejoined his unit in Belgium on 18 November 1917, was wounded on 1 September 1918, ‘admitted to the 53rd Casualty Clearing Station suffering from shell wounds chest, abdomen, and thighs, and died at 6 a.m. on 2.9.18.’ Sergeant Wilkins is buried in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France. Sold with copied service papers.