Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A good Great War Western Front M.C. group of four awarded to Captain T. W. Lonsdale, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, who died of wounds in June 1916, several days after being hit by a sniper

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., D. of Corn. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Thomas Wilkes Lonsdale), illuminated Memorial Scroll and wartime portrait photograph, rank and initials corrected on the second, generally good very fine and better (5) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1916.

Thomas Wilkes Lonsdale, who was born in June 1894, was educated at Bournemouth School and Battersea Polytechnic, and was a Sergeant in the London University O.T.C. at the time of enlisting in August 1914. Appointed to a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 7th (Service) Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in the following month, he landed in France in July 1915, where he was advanced to Captain and given command of a company. He subsequently witnessed considerable action in the Ypres Salient, the regimental history noting that he was awarded his M.C. for rescuing Captain O. L. Hancock, who was wounded in the leg and ankle (leg later amputated) from No Man’s Land on 18 September 1915, and for bringing in 2nd Lieutenant E. L. Lailey, who was killed by machine-gun fire while out in front superintending the putting up of wire on the Yser Canal on 29 February 1916. Sadly, Lonsdale himself died of wounds at No. 11 Stationary Hospital on 5 June 1916, having been hit in the stomach by sniper fire at Potijze Wood on 24 May 1916. Aged 22 years, he was buried in the Longuenesse (St. Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, while his father was presented with his M.C., possibly by the King (official correspondence refers).