A Collection of Medals to the 46th Foot and its Successor Units

Five: Acting Corporal H. M. Symons, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and Machine Gun Corps, who was killed during the London Blitz on 8 December 1940

India General Service 1895-1902, 2 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Tirah 1897-98 (4439. Pte. H. Symons. 1/D.C.L.I.) engraved in the usual style associated with this unit; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (44.. Pte. H. Symons, 2: D. of C. Lt. Inft.) contact marks partially obscuring number; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (4439 Pte. H. Symons. D. of C.L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (45703 A. Cpl. H. M. Symons. M.G.C.) contact marks and edge bruising, nearly very fine (5) £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 46th Foot and its Successor Units.

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Henry Mitchell Symons was born in Tavistock, Devon, in 1876 and attested for the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at Saltash on 12 June 1894. Posted to the 1st Battalion, he served with them in India and saw action with the Tirah Expeditionary Force on the Punjab Frontier 1897-98. He subsequently served with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa during the Boer War (and given that he did not receive the clasps for Paardeberg or Driefontein to his Queen’s South Africa Medal, he presumably formed part of a reinforcement draft which arrived after February 1900, rather than having sailed with the main body of the Battalion).

Symons saw further action with the Machine Gun Corps during the Great War, and latterly with the Labour Corps. However, having survived shot and shell in the various corners of the British Empire, and on the Western Front, he was killed during the blitz, at 38 Mostyn Road, Lambeth, London, on 8 December 1940.

Sold with copied research.