Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Sergeant W. G. Keepence, Wiltshire Regiment and Army Catering Corps

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, unnamed as issued

Four: Sergeant R. A. Richards, Wiltshire Regiment

1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., Territorial (1459500 Sjt., Wilts.); with ‘Loyal Service’ lapel badge, good very fine (8) £100-140

Medals to Keepence sold with Regular Army Certificate of Service; Soldier’s Release Book, dated ‘Belsen, Germany, 22.9.45’; recipient’s army notebook; Wiltshire Regiment Old Comrades’ Association Membership card; photographs of the recipient in uniform (4) and pocket watch, by Ingersoll, steel casing, reverse crudely inscribed, ‘G.S.T.P., 9360’, internal condition unknown.

William Gerald Keepence was born in 1908. A farm labourer by trade, he enlisted into the Wiltshire Regiment in 1926. Whilst in the Army he attended the School of Cookery and qualified as a Company Cook. He was discharged at his own request by payment in August 1929. With the outbreak of war, he re-enlisted and was appointed Cook-Sergeant in the Army Catering Corps, attached to the 4th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. He was released from the service in September 1945 and died on 23 June 1961.