Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sergeant E. W. Slater, 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers, who was killed in action in the attack on Poelcapelle, during the Battle of Langemarck, on 21 October 1914

1914 Star (9219 Sjt. E. W. Slater. S. Wales Bord.); British War and Victory Medals (9219 Sjt. E. W. Slater. S. Wales Bord.) nearly extremely 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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Ernest William Slater was born in 1886 at Holborn, London and enlisted for the South Wales Borderers in London in 1906. He served with the 1st Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 13 August 1914 and, following his battalion’s very fierce fighting during the operations above Troyon and on the Mont Faucon Ridge on the Aisne in September, entrained and travelled north to billets at Hondeghem.

The 1st South Wales Borderers entrained for Cassel on 17 October and moved forward to Langemarck in the Ypres Sector on 21 October, taking part in the attack on Poelcapelle at a cost of 2 officers killed, 1 officer wounded, 19 other ranks killed, 62 wounded and 65 missing. The battalion then held the line under heavy fire at Poelcapelle, repulsing several enemy infantry attacks - Atkinson’s Regimental History quotes one officer present as saying ’they came on in masses of 200 and simply got cut to pieces’.

Private Slater was among those killed on 21 October 1914. He was the son of William G. and Eliza Slater of 1 Franklin Street, South Tottenham, London and, having no known grave, is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.