Medals honouring brave actions of soldiers up for sale at auction house
Medals awarded to Lieutenant Gerald Aubrey Bond one with an inscription from General Montgomery - Credit: Archant
Military Cross medals from the First and Second World Wars, one with an inscription by General Montgomery, and one belonging to someone honoured in both wars, will be auctioned by Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on September 11.
The inscription by General Montgomery on the back of Major Alfred Thomas Alexander Wallace's medal - Credit: Archant
The Military Cross (MC) was created in the first months of the Great War.
The battalion, formed in 1916, served in the Mesopotamia Campaign. In 1918, the battalion went to Palestine and it was here that Kiddle, who was mentioned in dispatches, rescued one of his soldiers, injured during an attack on the Turks. His medals are estimated at £1,500-£1,800.
A Military Gross group of three was given to Lieutenant Gerald Aubrey Bond, 3rd County of London Yeomanry, for his heroic deeds at Passchendaele between August 2-11, 1917.
The London Gazette of October 18, 1917 recorded Bond’s “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on several occasions when bringing up rations and material to the front line on pack animals, over very difficult country and under almost continuous shell fire... in spite of casualties to animals and a stampede caused by shells, he never failed to deliver the whole of the stores”. With a pair of Second World War medals, these are expected to sell for £2,000-£3,000.
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Major Alfred Thomas Alexander Wallace of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, HQs Eighth Army, was awarded his in March 1943.
The medal (estimate £1,000-£1,500) has a citation from General Montgomery reading: “Wallace was responsible for the detail of the air support for the brilliant attack south of El Hamma. In order to prepare this attack he had to fly backwards and forwards from army headquarters to the left flank many times, a very highly dangerous journey. He never faltered and the outstanding success of the attack was due largely to his courageous work”. The award was given posthumously. Wallace was killed in action on May 5, 1943.
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Captain Thomas Ralph Sneyd-Kynnersley of the Royal Engineers was awarded the Military Cross in January 1917 and made an OBE in June 1941. The medals and Order are being sold with his dress miniatures with an estimate £800-£1,200.
