Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private S. Stirland, 15th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, who was killed in action on the night of 23-24 October 1918 after just 12 days in France

British War and Victory Medals (100973 Pte. S. Stirland. Durh. L.I.) very fine and better (2) £70-£90

Sydney Stirland was born in Annersley, Nottingham, in 1899, the younger son of local colliery deputy Thomas Stirland. A coal miner by occupation, Stirland initially attested for the Durham Light Infantry on 5 July 1916, his medical notes recording a scar to the neck and ‘bad’ teeth. Called up for active service on 30 May 1918, he was posted to No. 3 Depot for training and crossed the Channel to France with the 15th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry on 12 October 1918.

According to Durham at War, the 15th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry had been largely rebuilt by August 1918 following huge losses of men and materials on the Somme, at Arras and during the Battle of Passchendaele. In consequence, Stirland joined a unit largely made up of drafts of inexperienced young men, many of whose homes were far from County Durham. Led by similarly inexperienced officers, losses were heavy; reported missing during a night advance of some 3,000 yards, Stirland was later confirmed to have been killed. According to the recipient’s Army Service Record his mother later received his effects in a upsetting condition, evidence perhaps of the ferocious defence mounted by the Imperial German Army in the final weeks of the war. Aged 20 years, Stirland is buried at Englefontaine British Cemetery in a plot of land captured by the 18th and 33rd Divisions on 26 October 1918.