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

Three: Sergeant H. A. Ward, 1st Worcestershire Regiment, who was killed in action at Elst in Holland in September 1944, during the 43rd Wessex Division’s attempt to relieve the 1st Airborne at Arnhem

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, in original addressed card forwarding box, date stamped 22 April 1949, with Army Council condolence slip in the name of ‘Sgt. H. A. Ward’, extremely fine (3) £140-160

Horace Arthur Ward, the son of A. Ward of Broad Lane, Birmingham, to whom the above forwarding box is addressed, was killed in action at Elst on 24 September 1944. Aged 27 years, he was buried in the Arnhem-Oosterbeck Cemetery, Holland (Plot 10, Row A).

The 1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, formed part of the famous 43rd Wessex Infantry Division, and, having landed in Normandy in late June 1944, went on to witness heavy fighting during the crossing of the river Oden, the battle of Hill 112 and in the advance to Mount Picon. More famously, however, the Division was allocated the unenvious task of advancing to the relief of the 1st Airborne at Arnhem in September 1944, and sustained heavy casualties in fierce street fighting at Elst, on the river Roden, right on the Oosterbeck perimeter.