Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Pair: Lieutenant N. R. Mellor, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was severely wounded in Belgium in November 1917, while serving in the Royal Naval Division: he was afterwards a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Home Guard

British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut., R.N.V.R.); Defence Medal 1939-45, with original addressed card forwarding box for the last, together with related miniature dress medals (3), very fine and better (6) £80-100

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the collection of Angela and the late Douglas Bertram.

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Noel Rylands Mellor, who was appointed a Sub. Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in January 1915, was advanced to Temporary Lieutenant one year later and first went overseas in August 1916, when he joined 188th Machine-Gun Company, 63rd Royal Naval Division. In March 1917, he was appointed 2nd in command of his Company, and in the following month he was mentioned in despatches by Sir Douglas Haig (London Gazette 15 May 1917). Transferring to 223rd Machine-Gun Company, R.N.D., again as 2nd in command, in September 1917, Mellor was subsequently wounded in action in Belgium - ‘bomb wound left forearm, severe’ - and evacuated to 20th General Hospital at Camiers on 3 November 1917, and thence to England. Such was the severity of his wound that he was still hospitalised a year later, and he was invalided from the Service in April 1919.

Sold with a quantity of related badges (12), including Hood Battalion, lacking reverse fitments and pierced for mounting / display, and Lizard Battalion, Home Guard shoulder flashes, etc.