Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Langemark 1914’ D.S.O. group of five awarded to Major S. J. Steward, Royal Army Medical Corps

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, in its R & S. Garrard & Co case of issue, the inner silk lining with ink inscription, ‘With love to my wife 1914’; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, South Africa 1901, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (6587 Pte. S. J. Steward, Vol. Coy. Suffolk Regt.) clasp carriage block loose on ribbon and mounted in order listed; 1914 Star, with clasp (Capt: S. J. Steward. R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Major S. J. Steward.) extremely fine (5) £1,600-£2,000

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 December 1914:

‘Went with a party of stretcher-bearers across ground swept by rifle and shell fire to Langemark village, and removed 11 wounded men.’

The War Diary of No. 1 Field Ambulance for 25 November 1914 states: ‘Captain Steward on his return from Langemarck stated he collected eleven wounded of the Welch Regt. there, east of the village - just to the right of his position, he found 22 bodies in a heap, all dead - the position was too exposed, just behind the trenches, to remove identity discs as sniping and shell fire was going on, but a Corporal Maxwell of the Regt. who (with Ptes. Evans & Ruderick) had stood by in the village for medical aid) recognised some of the bodies & identified them. The wounded were carried by the six stretcher squads sent to the village where they were dressed in a cottage & removed then by 3 ambulance wagons I had sent out to follow Capt. Steward as far as the village of Langemarck.’

Captain Steward was decorated by the King in person on 3 December 1914, on the occasion of H.M.’s visit to the Expeditionary Force.

M.I.D. London Gazette 17 February 1915 (Field-Marshal French’s despatch of 20 November 1914).

Sidney John Steward was born at Worcester in 1879, son of John A. Steward, J.P. He was educated at Cathedral King’s School, Worcester; Downing College, Cambridge, and St Thomas’s Hospital, London. He served in the European War from 17 August 1914, was present at the retreat from Mons; advance on the Marne and Aisne; Ypres, 1914; Loos, 1915 (with No. 1 Field Ambulance, 1 Division until March, 1916); Medical Officer, No. 5 Infantry Base Depôt, Rouen; Senior Medical Officer, Paris (March, 1917); Second-in-Command, 24th Field Ambulance (8th Division) (October, 1917), and with this unit (Acting Major, January 1918) at Villers Bretonneux, March, 1918, and retreat to Marne, 1918; O.C., 31st Motor Ambulance Convoy (June, 1918), and with this unit (8th Corps) in advance during October, 1918, reaching Mons on Armistice Day, 1918; also served as a combatant in the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, in the South African War, 1899-1901.

Sold with original warrant for D.S.O., this dated 28 November 1914 and with its registered envelope, together with a War Office letter approving the resignation of his commission in 1922, and a large file of copied research including complete War Diaries of his various Field Ambulance postings throughout the war from August 1914.