Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant H. S. Gilliland, M.C., Devonshire Regiment, late Trumpeter, 13th Hussars, and Sergeant-Trumpeter, 8th Hussars

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (3922 Tptr., 13th Hussars); British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut.), the first with unofficially riveted dated clasps, severe edge knocks and somewhat polished, fine or better, the last about very fine (2) £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to Trumpeters from the Collection of Roderick Cassidy.

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Hodgson Stuart Gilliland was born at Exmouth, Devon and enlisted in the 13th Hussars in June 1897, aged 14 years. That December a horse kicked him in the head and knocked him unconscious, but thereafter he appears to have enjoyed an accident-free career with the 13th Hussars and witnessed active service out in South Africa from February 1901 until the end of hostilities, during which period he was appointed a Trumpeter. Transferring as a Sergeant-Trumpeter to the 8th Hussars in April 1912, he was serving out in India on the outbreak of hostilities, but was quickly embarked for active duty and arrived in France in November 1914.

In April 1916, Gilliland was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment, and joined the 1st Battalion in time for the Somme operations that summer. But his time at the Front was short-lived, for in an operation on 28 July he received a bayonet wound in his left leg and sustained shell-shock from the explosion of an H.E. shell, injuries that necessitated his immediate evacuation to England - back home the former musician was no doubt devastated to learn that the resultant loss of hearing in his right ear would be permanent. Better news was announced in the London Gazette of 18 October 1917, however, when he discovered that he had been awarded the M.C.:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of a patrol. Finding that the enemy’s wire could not be cut without giving the alarm, with one N.C.O. he crawled under the wire and lay on the enemy’s parapet for three-quarters of an hour, gaining valuable information. While he was returning the enemy opened a heavy machine-gun fire, but he skilfully withdrew his men, and, though wounded himself, helped carry a wounded man back. He brought back a valuable report.’

Gilliland, who was advanced to Lieutenant in October 1917, was placed on the Army Reserve in August 1919, but, as accompanying research confirms, quickly returned to uniform as a Cadet Officer in the Royal Irish Constabulary, in which capacity he served in “The Troubles”. He died in 1956.