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

Family group:

Three: Private F. J. Land, 4th London Regiment

1914-15 Star (2274 Pte., 4-Lond. R.), second initial given as ‘T.’; British War and Victory Medals (2274 Pte., 4-Lond. R.), very fine and better

Five: Sergeant-Major F. A. E. Land, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment

India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1935 (4602714 Cpl., D.W.R.); Defence and War Medals; Jubilee 1935, privately engraved, ‘4602714 Cpl. F. A. E. Land, D.W.R.’; Army L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., Regular Army (4602714 Cpl. F. A. E. Land, D.W.R.), extremely fine (8) £150-200

Frederick James Land entered the French theatre of war with the 4th (City of London) Battalion in January 1915, soon after which it joined the Ferozepore Brigade of the Lahore Division. The Battalion ended the War with 168th Brigade, 56th Division, near Peruwelz, south-east of Tournai, Belgium.

Frederick Allen Edward Land, son of the above, who was born at Bethnal Green, London in August 1902, enlisted in the Duke of Wellingtons Regiment at Whitehall in September 1919, aged 17 years. Posted to the 2nd Battalion, he served out in Ireland during the troubles of 1920-22, the Battalion twice being sent to Belfast to deal with riots. Land was advanced to Lance-Corporal in December 1922, while stationed in Egypt, and to Corporal in January 1926, while stationed in Singapore, but he forfeited his subsequent advancement to Sergeant in 1933, while in India. Following a period of training in mountain warfare, the 2nd Dukes were employed in the Nowshera Brigade in the North West Frontier operations of 1935, but in May 1937, Land transferred to the 1st Battalion on Malta. By the eve of the renewal of hostilities, Land was back in the U.K. as a Lance-Sergeant, and in 1940 was detached for duties as an instructor with the Army Fire Service. He was subsequently employed in a similar capacity with Leeds University O.T.C., in the rank of Sergeant-Major, and with the Bradford Home Guard. He was released in July 1945.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation and photographs, the former including F. A. E. Land’s Soldier’s Service and Pay Book, and the latter a picture of him advancing up a hillside in India, wearing an eye patch, and another with Private Henry Tandey, V.C., D.C.M., M.M.