Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

Three: Lieutenant S. R. Perry, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, late Honourable Artillery Company, who was killed in action at Gincy on 17 September 1916
1914-15 Star (2298 Pte. S. R. Perry. H.A.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. S. R. Perry.) good very fine

Pair: Captain L. B. Perry, Royal Army Medical Corps
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. L. B. Perry.); together with the recipient’s Silver War Badge, the reverse officially numbered ‘B45550’, nearly extremely fine

Pair: The Reverend Canon H. C. Perry, Royal Army Chaplains’ Department
British War and Victory Medals (Rev. H. C. Perry.) mounted as worn, very fine (7) £300-£400

Stephen Ralph Perry was born in 1893, the son of the Rev. Samuel Edgar Perry, Vicar of Littleport, Ely, and was educated at Tonbridge School. Following the outbreak of the Great War he enlisted in the Honourable Artillery Company on 8 September 1914, and served with the 1st Battalion on the Western Front from 23 January 1915. Commissioned temporary Second Lieutenant, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, on 16 January 1916, he served with the 12th Battalion in the Ypres Salient, and then on the Somme, and was killed in action at Ginchy on 17 September 1916:
‘That morning, the Germans made a strong counter-attack and occupied a portion of our trench. Lieutenant Perry promptly led two platoons across the open, and after some very sharp fighting the trench was recovered, but whilst directing operations on the top of the parapet he was struck simultaneously by a bomb ands a rifle bullet, and died five minutes later. The two subalterns who were under him were both awarded the Military Cross. His Commanding Officer wrote:
“A more gallant officer never came to France. He was a universal favourite, and we all feel his loos deeply. I saw his end, and a better one no man could wish for. He was most gallantly leading his men against the enemy and appeared to be utterly regardless of his own safety, when he was struck by several bullets... I do hope it will be some comfort to you to know that, as he had to go, the end came in such a way that you can always most justly think of him with the greatest pride”.’

Perry was buried at Ginchy, near to where he fell. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.

Lionel Banks Perry was born on 31 December 1884, the son of the Rev. Samuel Edgar Perry, and brother of the above, and was educated at Tonbridge School and Queens’ College, Cambridge. He undertook his medical training at St. Thomas’s Hospital (House Surgeon 1909-10), and was commissioned temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 16 May 1917. He served during the Great War in Salonika attached to the 80th Field Ambulance, 26th Division from 28 June 1917, before being invalided home with malaria in 1918. He relinquished his commission on account of ill health contracted on active service on 30 November 1918, and was granted the honorary rank of Captain. He died, accidentally drowned, at Mundelsey, Norfolk, on 18 July 1926.

The Reverend Canon Henry Charles Perry was born in 1887, the son of the Rev. Samuel Edgar Perry, and brother of both of the above, was educated at Tonbridge School and Queens’ College, Cambridge. Ordained Deacon in 1911, and priest in 1912, he was appointed Chaplain at Bedford School in 1913, and served during the Great War as a temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class, from 1917. He later served a Rural Dean of Bedford, 1944-48, and was appointed an Honorary Canon of St. Albans in 1951.

Sold with extensive copied research.