Special Collections

Sold on 2 April 2004

1 part

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A Collection of Medals to the 13th Regiment and Somerset Light Infantry

Lot

№ 366

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2 April 2004

Hammer Price:
£160

Four: Private R. H. Oliver, Somerset Light Infantry, who was killed in action in the advance on Caen in August 1944

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals,
with original Army Council condolence slip, nearly extremely fine (4) £40-60

Reginald Henry Oliver, who was from Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells, was killed in action in France on 1 August 1944, while serving in the 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry.

The Battalion had been sent up to the frontline near Caen on being landed at Courscelles-sur-Mer on the morning of 22 June 1944, and thereafter suffered regaular casualties as a result of enemy mortar and sniper fire. Oliver was actually one of five men killed by enemy tank fire during a Battalion assault on the village of St. Pierre du Fresne.

Aged 27 years, he was interred in the Hottot-les-Bagues War Cemetery, Calvados.