Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Captain E. C. Whiteley, 22nd Company, 3rd Sappers and Miners, Royal Engineers, who was killed in action at Shaiba on 14 April 1915, and posthumously mentioned in despatches

1914-15 Star (Capt., R.E.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leak (Capt.); Delhi Durbar 1911; together with School of Military Engineering Haynes Memorial Medal 1898, by F. Bowcher, obverse: bust of the officer facing right, ‘Captain A. E. Haynes, R.E., 1861-96’; a bridged chasm in high relief, ‘Field Fortification S.M.E.’, edge inscribed (2nd Lieut. E. C. Whiteley, R.E.), 56mm., bronze, nearly extremely fine (5) £350-400

M.I.D. London Gazette 5 April 1916 ‘... for services in connection with the operations in Mesopotamia from 6 November 1914, up to 14 April 1915.’

Delhi Durbar confirmed whilst serving with No. 6 Company, 1st King George’s Own Sappers and Miners.’

Captain Edward Claude Whiteley was educated at Wellington College and received his commission in the Royal Engineers from the Royal Military Accademy. Woolwich, in December 1908, joining the 3rd Bombay Sappers and Miners in 1911. He was killed in action during the Battle of Shaiba on 14 April 1915 and is buried at Basra War Cemetery, Iraq.

The following in relation to the action in which he was killed is extracted from The Wellington College Year Book 1915: ‘His brigade was taken in flank, and he was ordered by the General to take his sappers round and try and join up the gap between his brigade and the next. They started to advance again and just before the advance Whiteley was hit by three bullets and died an hour after. There is no doubt that but for his prompt and determined move which formed a pivot for the attack of the brigades, there might have been a nasty miss. His Colonel wrote of him: “One of the most promising officers in the army. A man of cool courage and a very perfect gentleman; careful and thoughtful for others. He had a wonderful genius for engineering.”

The Haynes Medal was named after Captain A. E. Haynes, R.E., who as a junior officer was selected by Colonel Charles Warren to accompany him on the Palmer Search Expedition in 1882 and in the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-85. He was Assistant Instructor in Survey at the School of Military Engineering from 1889 to 1894. In 1896, while taking the 43rd Company to Mauritius, he with his company joined the Matabeleland Expedition. Haynes was killed in the successful attack on the Matabele stronghold. A subscription was raised by his family in order to erect a monument in Rochester Cathedral. The balance of the fund was used to provide a bronze medal to a Sapper in each party of recruits going through the Field Work Course at the School of Military Engineering.

n.b.: Illustration of lot on following page