Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 1 clasp, Basutoland (Capt. E. W. Finch, Transvaal Hse.) rank officially corrected, contact marks and one or two edge bruises, otherwise very fine £250-300

Ernest Walter Finch, who was born in July 1855, saw extensive service in South Africa, originally having been commissioned into the King William’s Town Volunteer Artillery as a Lieutenant in 1878 - he was subsequently employed in the Gaika operations and in the Zulu War. Appointed a Captain in the Transvaal Horse in 1881, he witnessed further active service in The Basutoland operations, and in the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1887, in which latter operations he served in the 1st Mounted Rifles and Methuen’s Horse.

Back in the U.K., in March 1906, he was appointed a Captain in the 2nd Kent R.G.A. Volunteers, later 4th London Howitzer Brigade, R.F.A., in which unit he attained advancement to Major in December 1912, and to Lieutenant-Colonel on the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. His subsequent career in the Great War, when he was in his early 60s, is best summarised by his own words, as submitted to higher authority for a pension claim in January 1919:

‘I raised, trained and commanded in 1914 the 2/4th Howitzer Brigade and afterwards raised and trained the 58th London Divisional Ammunition Column. In 1916, owing to age, I was placed on the Territorial Reserve of Officers and received a gratuity. In March 1917 I again received an appointment as Officer Commanding the 12th Northamptonshire Labour Company, afterwards titled the 150th, and went to France where I was engaged in arduous work close to the frontline in Arras, from whence I was invalided home after many casualties amongst my men. I again went to France in 1918 as Officer Commanding 1002 Russian Labour Company and returned home in September 1918, where I was placed on the Reserve of Officers.’