Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Seven: Colonel W. Vero, Royal Army Pay Corps, late Corps of Military Accountants and West Yorkshire Regiment, who received two gunshot wounds on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916

1914-15 Star (15-922 Cpl. W. Vere [sic]. W. York. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. W. Vero.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf, the Second War awards all privately engraved ‘Colonel W. Vero. R.A.P.C.’, mounted court-style for wear, very fine and better (7) £140-£180

William Vero was born in Leeds on 16 May 1892, the son of clothiers cutter James Frederick Vero. Educated at Leeds Central High School, he attested for the 15th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment on 13 September 1914 and embarked for Egypt on 6 December 1915. Transferred to France 8 March 1916, he suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg and right arm on 1 July 1916 and was evacuated from the Somme battlefield home to England the following day.

Appointed Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment 28 March 1917, Vero suffered a further gunshot wound to the right foot on the Somme on 22 April 1918. Posted to Accounts at the War Office 1 November 1918, he was attached to the Corps of Military Accountants from 1 April 1919 and appointed to a permanent commission in the C.M.A. on 1 November 1920. He later served at Tientsin in 1931 and in France from 12 September 1939; returned home via Margate in January 1940, he was mentioned in despatches on 26 July 1940.

Placed on sick leave and admitted to the North Devon Infirmary at Barnstaple, Vero was subsequently admitted to the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital at Exeter on 22 July 1941 in consequence of enemy action. He recovered and was advanced Acting Colonel & Chief Paymaster 1 November 1943. Disembarked in North West Europe with No. 9 C.P.O., 14 August 1944, Vero survived the Second World War and continued to serve in The Gambia and Gold Coast; he retired as Honorary Colonel on 16 May 1949 upon reaching the age limit, and died in Kenya on 13 December 1979.

Sold with copied research including two photographic images of the recipient.