A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers

Pair: Private G. Rugen, 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers, who was killed in action in during the Battle of the Lys on 11 April 1918, a day when the battalion lost three-quarters of its men
British War and Victory Medals (46448 Pte. G. Rugen. S. Wales Bord.) good very fine

Pair: Lance Corporal W. E. M. Davies, 10th (1st Gwent) Battalion, South Wales Borderers, who died of wounds received on the Western Front on 2 July 1918
British War and Victory Medals (44146 Pte. W. E. M. Davies. S. Wales Bord.) good very fine (4) £100-£140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers.

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George Rugen was born in Liverpool in 1899, and attested for the South Wales Borderers. He served with the 2nd Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, and was killed in action on 11 April 1918 during the Battle of the Lys, an action which the regimental history describes in some detail:
‘The fight which the Twenty-Ninth Division put up on April 11th was well worthy of its record. Over-matched and out-flanked, it held on long enough to give time for other units to come up and take post on a more defensible line in rear, the Thirty-First Division on its left rear near Vieux Berquin and Merris, the Fifth further to the right and nearer Merville. In this stand the 2nd S.W.B played their full share. It was difficult in that enclosed country to cover much ground to the flank, and after nearly two hours of fighting the enemy, taking advantage of the cover of the hedges, managed to work round the battalion’s left and roll it up. Captain Bennett and his men were rushed from behind, while successfully keeping the enemy in their front at bay. Battalion Headquarters, taken in flank and rear by the German advance, put up a desperate fight, Major Somerville and his men being last seen defending a trench with the enemy right round their flank on top of them. Their resistance enabled a substantial portion of B and C Companies on the right to get away, though their casualties were heavy and it was only in small and disorganised parties that they extricated themselves… All that could be collected of the 2nd S.W.B., barely 150 men with three officers, of whom Captain W. Davies was the senior, being placed on its left about la Ferme Prince. Three-quarters of the battalion were gone, but the time its resistance had gained was invaluable.’ (The History of the South Wales Borderers 1914-18 by C. T. Atkinson refers).

Rugen has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium.

William Evan Morgan Davies was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, in 1894 and attested for the South Wales Borderers. He served with the 10th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, and died of wounds on 2 July 1918. He is buried in Varennes Military Cemetery, France.

Sold with copied Medal Index Card and other research.