Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Second Lieutenant J. G. Anderson, Yorkshire Regiment, late 16th (1st Bradford Pals) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, who was wounded at Serre-lès-Puisieux on 1 July 1916, the First Day of the Battle of the Somme, whilst serving with the Bradford Pals

1914-15 Star (16-66 Pte J. G. Anderson. W. York: R); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. J. G. Anderson.) with damaged named card box of issue, good very fine or better (3) £400-£500

James Gilchrist Anderson was born in West Ham, Essex in 1893. The son of Peter and Margaret Anderson, he moved with his family to Bradford in 1907 following his father’s appointment to the position of Secretary of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce.
Having received a letter on 7 September 1914 from his employer, Law, Russell & Co. encouraging him, as an unmarried man, to enlist in Lord Kitchener’s Army, he attested for the 16th (Service) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (1st Bradford Pals) and sailed with them from Liverpool on 6 December 1915, arriving in Egypt on 21 December where they formed part of the 93rd Brigade, 31st Division. Soon directed to the western front, his battalion arrived on the Somme on 9 March 1916 where they trained and occupied trenches in preparation for the impending ‘Big Push’. Anderson’s diary from this period mostly records the drudgery of digging trenches in the rain, laying wire at night and the occasional casualty from shell-fire. Example entries for 14 - 18 May being: ‘Went in trenches 3.30pm acted as observer to Lt. Maitland. Captain Holmes spoke about Com.’; ’Moved position in trench, 2 1/4 hours bombardment 12.30-2.45am. no casualties’; ’trenches in bad condition in places’; ‘still in trenches’; ‘still in trenches’. Diary entries cease after 22 June 1916.
Early on the morning of 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Anderson went over the top with B Company and was wounded during his battalion’s ill-fated attack on the village of Serre-lès-Puisieux. Almost annihilated in this their first real taste of front line battle, the 1st Battalion suffered a casualty rate of approximately 75%.
After a period recovering in hospital and at a convalescent camp, Anderson was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th (Service) Battalion, Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire Regiment) on 29 August 1917 (London Gazette 28 September 1917) and served with them on the Italian Front. Anderson’s letters home from this period reveal how he eventually succumbed to the appalling living conditions and was hospitalised with trench fever in April 1918, re-joining his battalion in June and returning to France in September to join the 74th Brigade of the 25th Division. He was released from military duty on 10 January 1919 and resumed his career as a Commercial Clerk. He died at Kingston-upon-Hull in 1969.

Sold with a substantial archive of material contained within the recipient’s vintage brown leather suitcase, 40cm x 25cm x 11cm, including the following: 1916 diary with daily entries 28 February - 22 June; 1917 diary with daily entries 6 March - 5 May; large quantity of letters written by the recipient to his mother from a range of postings including Egypt, France and Italy; postcard photograph of 28 men of the Bradford Pals; Order of Service booklet - ‘Bradford Parish Church, A service in memory of those of the 16th and 18th Bradford Pals Battalions who laid down their lives in the Great European War, Sunday November 16th, 1919’; Order of Service booklet - ‘Dedication and Reception of the Colours of the 16th & 18th ‘Pals’ Battalions of the West Yorkshire Regiment, 24 November 1920’; photograph of 6 nurses (named), Sunderland 1917; family photograph - Scarborough 1912; three contemporary maps - i) Basiano region, Italy with locations near Asiago highlighted; ii) Mantova region, Italy; iii) Valenciennes region, Belgium; a large quantity of other letters, cards, newspaper cuttings etc. relating to the recipient’s service and a variety of other topics; Lord Mayor of Bradford’s Great War tribute badge - obverse showing the Bradford coat of arms, inscribed ‘Lord Mayor’s Fund, European War 1914-1919’ and reverse inscribed ‘In recognition of valuable services, W. Barber J.P. Lord Mayor’; metal and enamel pin badge - ‘Lady Mayoress’s Bradford War Guild’; embroidered cloth pin badge - ‘SPC Bradford’; Royal Army Medical Corps collar badge.