Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Major W. St. John-Spencer, 9th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, late Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry, a veteran of the North-West Frontier and the Boer War he was wounded eight times and invalided out of the Army in 1916

British War and Victory Medals (Major W. St. John-Spencer.) good very fine (2) £140-£180

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

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William St. John-Spencer was born in 1876 and served during the Boer War in South Africa as a Lieutenant in Thorneycroft’s Mounted infantry (Q.S.A. with 3 clasps and K.S.A. with 2 clasps). With the onset of the Great War in 1914 he was a Lieutenant on the Territorial Force General List (Poplar Battalion, National Reserve) and he was appointed Temporary Captain in the 12th (Bermondsey) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment on 12 July 1915.

St. John-Spencer served during the Great War on the Western Front in the rank of Temporary Major as second in command of the 9th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment from 28 August 1916, and was invalided to England on 18 November 1916. Admitted to Mill Bank Hospital, London with a head wound on 21 November 1916, he was discharged 1 month later with permanent injuries.

Following his death in 1937, a number of newspaper articles and obituaries stated that Major St. John-Spencer had been aide-de-camp to H.M. King George VI when he was Duke of York and that he had been wounded eight times in all throughout his service in the Boer War, the Great War and on the North-West Frontier of India.