Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A good Great War M.C. group of six awarded to Major W. G. Chandler, Commanding, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, formerly Devon Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R., with original fitted case of issue and card outer box; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Transvaal, Cape Colony, Orange Free State (5382 Corpl., Devon Regt.) top two clasps loose on ribbon, old repair to suspension; King’s South Africa, 2 clasps (5382 Corpl., Devon Regt.); 1914 Star, with slide clasp (5382 C.S. Mjr., 1/Devon R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Major) the Q.S.A. and K.S.A. with heavy contact wear and polished, therefore good fine, otherwise very fine £1000-1200

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

M.I.D. London Gazette 27 December 1918.

William George Chandler was born in Frensham, near Farnham, Surrey on 5 September 1880. A farm labourer, he enlisted into the Devonshire Regiment on 5 July 1899, aged 18 years. He served with them in the Boer War and was awarded the Queen’s medal with clasp for Transvaal and the King’s medal with two clasps. He was appointed Company Sergeant-Major in October 1913. On 2 March 1915 he was appointed to a commission as 2nd Lieutenant, for services in the field, and posted to the Suffolk Regiment.

The History of The Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927, by Lieut.-Colonel C.C.R. Murphy confirms Major Chandler as being wounded at Ypres on 25 April 1915, and again on 8 July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. It further states that he commanded the 2nd Battalion during the advance to the Rhine, when, ‘on 11 December 1918 with bayonets fixed, colours flying, and the drums and fifes playing the regimental march, the battalion crossed the frontier and entered Germany, marching past the Corps and Divisional Commanders assembled to receive them.’ Chandler was placed on Retired Pay with the rank of Major on 11 June 1919 and was also appointed to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers. He ceased to belong to the Reserve in September 1930 and died on 17 June 1937.

The group is accompanied by the following artefacts and documents: a brass military issue marching compass, dated 1916, contained in it’s original leather case, this inscribed ‘Major Chandler’; original M.I.D. certificate (Lt. (A. Maj.), 2nd Bn., Suffolk Regiment); commission document (2nd Lieutenant, Suffolk Regiment, 2 March 1915); Battalion Orders, dated 12 December 1918 ‘By Major W. G. Chandler, Commanding 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment’; two character reports re Major Chandler; and an interesting certificate, inscribed ‘At a meeting of the Council of the Borough of Bury St Edmund’s held in the Council Chamber on the 12th day of November 1918, it was unanimously resolved that the Town Council of the Borough of Bury St Edmund’s beg to express their best thanks to the officers of the 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment for their proposed gift of four field guns and one howitzer very recently captured by them from the Germans, and that they will have much pleasure in receiving them as trophies of the gallantry and bravery of the Suffolk Regiment, and to exhibit them in a suitable place in the Borough. The Council congratulate them upon the successful termination of the war and upon the fresh laurels they have won which have maintained the traditional bravery of the Suffolk Regiment..’; and three original photographs of recipient.

See Lot 1272 for his son’s medals.