Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private H. J. Lucas, 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, a Boer War veteran who was killed in action near Violaines during the Battle of La Bassée on 22 October 1914

1914 Star, with copy clasp (5816 Pte. H. J. Lucas. Dorset: R.); British War and Victory Medals (5816 Pte. H. J. Lucas. Dorset. R.) good very fine (3) £200-£240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals.

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Harry John Lucas was born in Ludwell, Dorset in 1880 and attested for the Dorsetshire Regiment at Dorchester, Dorset in 1899. He served with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa during the Boer War and was awarded the Queen’s Medal with 3 clasps and the King’s Medal with 2 clasps. Having transferred to the 1st Battalion at the end of the campaign, he was back with the 2nd Battalion at Poona, India by the time of the 1911 Census.

After the outbreak of the Great War, he served with the 1st Battalion on the Western Front from 16 August 1914 and, following his battalion’s participation in the fighting at Mons (and the Retreat), the Marne and the Aisne, he was recorded missing presumed dead on 22 October 1914 during the Battle of La Bassée. On this day the ‘enemy broke through the 1st Cheshire’s line at Violaines (22nd) and Cheshires fell back to a new line being dug by company of 1st Dorsetshire - Regimental History records - “Our composite company, who were digging in rear, could do nothing; as the remains of the Cheshires started falling back on them.” Withdrew to la Quinque Rue then at 8pm to Festubert. Casualties - 7 killed, 24 wounded, 103 missing.’ (British Battalions in France and Belgium 1914 by Ray Westlake refers). He has no known grave, and is commemorated on Le Touret Memorial, France.