The John Chidzey Collection

A Great War M.M. group of three awarded to the Rev. F. W. Spencer, Royal Army Chaplains’ Department, late Royal Army Medical Corps

Military Medal, G.V.R. (81889 Pte. F. W. Spencer, 21/F.A. R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Rev. F. W. Spencer), together with related Wesleyan Methodist 20th Century Fund medallion, white metal, good very fine or better (4) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Chidzey Collection.

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M.M. London Gazette 17 December 1917.

Frank Woodward Spencer was born in St. Helens, Lancashire in 1890, the youngest son of a Methodist preacher, and after schooling in the Isle of Wight, graduated from London University.

At the time of the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was a teacher at Westminster College and a candidate for Ministry, but he enlisted as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps and went out to France as a stretcher bearer in the 21st Field Ambulance in September 1916, where he quickly saw action on the Somme, and was awarded the M.M. Returning home in the following year, he was appointed a Chaplain to the Forces 4th Class and remained similarly employed until the War’s end.

Designated for overseas work in 1919, he followed two of his brothers out to Mysore in India, where the three rendered continuous service over a period of 50 years. An outstanding preacher, Spencer acted as Chairman of the District in 1946-47 and was instrumental in the inauguration of the Mysore Diocese of the new Church of South India. He died in the Nilgiri Hills in May 1948, aged 58 years; sold with detailed copy obituary notice and other research.