Special Collections
Four: Second Lieutenant A. H. Shields, Royal Fusiliers, late Surrey Yeomanry and 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (3453 Pte., 6/Drgns.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (3453 Pte., Innis. Drgns.); British War Medal 1914-20 (2 Lieut.); Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (45020 Sq. S. Mjr., Surr. Yeo.) first two with minor contact marks, very fine and better (4) £220-260
This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Surrey Yeomanry.
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Alexander Hamilton Shields was born in Herne Hill, London, on 12 November 1879. Educated at a private school in Tooting, he was employed as an Electrical Engineer. He enlisted into the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons on 25 June 1894, and after service in the Boer War was discharged on 4 March 1903. On 11 May 1908 he attested for service in the Surrey Yeomanry. With “A” Squadron Surrey Yeomanry he landed at Le Havre on 22 December 1914 and in April 1915 was appointed Acting Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant and in November the same year was promoted to Squadron Sergeant-Major. For his services thus far in the war, Shields was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 22 June 1915). Transferred to Salonika in February 1916 and thence to Egypt in July 1916, he was allowed leave to England in September 1916 and returned to Egypt in February 1917. On route again to Salonika, he had the misfortune to be travelling on the S.S. Georgian, when on 8 March 1917, she was torpedoed and sunk by a submarine, 52 miles north of Cape Sidero, Crete. Surviving this disaster, he at length rejoined his unit in Salonika. In April 1917 Shields was accepted for admission to an Officer Cadet Unit and posted to England. On 30 January 1918 he commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 52nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers.
Sold with 24 copied sheets of service papers and copied m.i.c.
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