Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Lord Strathcona’s Horse ‘raised dates’ Q.S.A. and Great War pair to Lieutenant Howard Grestock, 73rd Canadian Infantry (Royal Highlanders of Canada), with whom he was killed in France in February 1917

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, dated reverse, 5 clasps, Natal, Orange Free State, Belfast, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (54 Pte. H. Grestock, Ld. Strathcona’s H:); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. H. Grestock); Canadian Memorial Cross, G.V.R. (Lieut. H. Grestock) the first with slightly slack suspension and minor edge bruises, otherwise good very fine (4) £4000-5000

Howard Grestock was an original member of Lord Strathcona’s Horse, specially raised for service in the Boer War. He re-enlisted into the same unit on 4 May 1915, as 2499 Private, and was promoted to Corporal on 26 July 1916. Later that year he was commissioned into the 73rd Infantry Battalion, Royal Highlanders of Canada, and was killed in France on 5 February 1917. He was then aged 39 and is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez. It was from this cemetery, in May 2000, that the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier were exhumed and laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in a sarcophagus at the foot of the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, Ottawa.