Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1885-7 (117 Sergt. E. W. Willcocks. 2nd Bn. Som. L.I.) minor official correction to middle initial, suspension loose, very fine £80-£100

Ernest William Willcocks, a printer and member of the Militia, was born in Weston, Somerset, in 1861. He attested into the Somerset Light Infantry at Taunton on 25 March 1862. He served in India from February 1883 and served during the Burma campaign of 1885 to 1887. He was appointed Sergeant in March 1887, before returning to the UK the following December. Willcocks was discharged to the Army Reserve on 24 March 1894; at the outbreak of the Great War, he attested at Taunton serving as a Sergeant Instructor and Quartermaster at Bath Military Hospital. Discharged due to his age in February 1916, he was awarded a Silver War Badge, No. 152,317. He died in Weston-Super-Mare on 25 September 1926, and a bearer party was provided by serving members of his regiment, with the ‘last post’ being played by a Bugle Major who had served with him in Burma.

Sold together with a damaged ‘National Reserve Somerset’ Badge and copy research.