Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

Pair: Private G. Oliver, Welsh Regiment
British War and Victory Medals (46177 Pte. G. Oliver. Welsh. R.) good very fine

Four: Sapper S. G. Oliver, 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers, who was killed in action on the beach during the Dieppe Raid, 19 August 1942
1939-45 Star; Defence Medal, Canadian issue in silver; Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, with overseas clasp; War Medal 1939-45, Canadian issue in silver; Canadian Memorial Cross, G.VI.R. (A.20388 Spr. S. G. Oliver) generally very fine or better (7) £400-£500

George Oliver enlisted in the 3rd Battalion, Welsh Regiment in December 1915, and served with the Regiment on the Western Front. He was discharged, 4 December 1918 (entitled to Silver War Badge).

Sydney George Oliver was the son of the above, and was born in Cardiff in 1909. He was employed as a construction work in Ontario, Canada prior to the Second War. Oliver enlisted in the 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers in December 1939, and embarked for the UK in August 1940. The Canadian Military Engineers Association gives the following detail for Oliver’s involved during the Dieppe Raid, 19 August 1942:
‘On the Dieppe Raid Sapper Oliver was a member of Major Sucharov’s Party of 92 All Ranks organized into eight teams and distributed among the Landing Craft. Their primary tasks were to support the landings on RED and WHITE beaches by clearing mines and other obstacles, preparing beach exit routes for tracks and wheels, breaching the Esplanade wall and getting the engineer stores and equipment where they were needed.

Sapper Oliver’s team was assigned to WHITE Beach and was transported in Landing Craft Tank 3A. Several of the LCTs were unable to land. The survivors of the 71 sappers of the beach assault parties that made it ashore did the best they could to assist the tanks over the beach and the wall. The timbers, required for ramping over the higher parts of the sea-wall, however, never became available and they did what they could with chespaling.

Like the infantry, the engineers were frequently pinned down and their work was greatly hampered by the enemy fire. Sapper Oliver was Killed in Action on the beach later in the day. He is buried in the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery, Hautot-sur-Mer, France.’

Sold with 20 small photographs taken from the German perspective in aftermath of the Dieppe Raid.