Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Second Lieutenant W. H. F. Flowers, York and Lancaster Regiment, late Canadian Mounted Rifles, who died of wounds on the Western Front on 15 April 1918

1914-15 Star (107221 Pte. W. H. F. Flowers. 2-Can. M. Rif.); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. W. H. F. Flowers.); Memorial Plaque (William Henry Field Flowers), all mounted in a contemporary wooden glazed display frame mounted with York & Lancaster and 2nd C.M.R. badges, extremely fine (4) £400-£500

William Henry Field Flowers was born on 16 September 1891, and was educated at Stancliffe Hall, Matlock, and St Cuthbert’s, Worksop. He went to Canada in 1912 and settled at Regina, and later in the Ohanagan Valley. He enlisted into the Canadian Mounted Rifles on 6 August 1914 and served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from September 1915 until being invalided home with pleurisy in June 1916. He rejoined his battalion in September the same year; received a commission and was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the York and Lancaster Regiment on 21 September 1917. He joined his regiment in October and died at No. 77 Field Ambulance on 15 April 1918, of wounds received in action at Mont du Lille, near Bailleul, the previous evening. He is buried in Berthen Communal Cemetery. His Adjutant wrote to a friend of his: ‘Your friend’s conduct was magnificent,’ and his Commanding Officer said: ‘He behaved splendidly: I do not know what I could have done without him at the end. His name was to have been sent in for decoration and promotion.’