Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Sergeant W. J. Reeds, Royal Engineers, who was captured and taken Prisoner of War on 23 March 1918

British War and Victory Medals (518037 Sjt. W. J. Reeds. R.E.); Defence Medal; Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (518037 Sjt. W. J. Reeds. R.E.), together with the three G.V.R. related miniature awards, these mounted as worn, heavy verdigris to VM, otherwise nearly very fine (4) £100-£140

William James Reeds was born in 1890 at Portsmouth, Hampshire and was a shipwright by occupation. He enrolled as a Sapper in the 1st Hampshire Royal Engineers Volunteers at Portsmouth on 17 October 1905 and attested for the Hampshire (Fortress) Royal Engineers on 14 May 1908. Promoted Corporal in 1912, he was embodied in that rank on 5 August 1914 following the outbreak of the Great War, serving initially at Home. He was granted the substantive rank of Sergeant on 28 November 1914.

Reeds was embarked to join the British Expeditionary Force in France on 27 May 1917 and served on the Western Front with No. 517 (London) Field Company, Royal Engineers from August 1917. He was reported missing on 23 March 1918 and later confirmed as having been captured by the Germans on that date at Metz and was held prisoner of war. His last place of internment was Güstrow, Germany, from where he was released on 11 January 1919. He was disembodied on demobilisation on 15 May 1919, and was awarded the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal in February 1921.