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Auction: 15002 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 317

A Poignant and Extremely Well Documented Great War Casualty Pair to Private R. Dormer, Leicestershire Yeomanry, Killed in Action, 22.6.1917
British War and Victory Medals (3420 Pte. F. Dormer. Leic. Yeo.), Mint state, with the recipient's Parchment Memorial Scroll, and the following archive of related items and documents:
- Two Identity discs
- Signet Ring, crudely engraved 'RJD'
- Cigarette Case, damaged and found on recipient's body, with three unsmoked cigarettes
- Brooch, gilt-metal, with a picture of recipient in uniform on one side and his sister on the other
- Wallet, found with four Greetings Cards inside, from family and his sweetheart, one dated Christmas 1916 and another March 1917
- Parchment Certificate of Discharge
- A number of letters from the Territorial Association and the Ministry of Pensions
- Ten Letters home written by the recipient from the front throughout 1917, including one written 19.6.1917, three days before he was killed
- Letter written to recipient at the front from his 15 year old sister, dated 29.5.1917
- Letter from fellow soldier and family friend to recipient's mother with regard to his death, dated 13.7.1917
- Eight Letters of Condolence
- Letter from the mother of a soldier killed with recipient, enclosed with her son's photograph and addressed to recipient's father, dated 23.7.1917
- A number of photographs relating to recipient's service, and family, also found in recipient's wallet (see above); a large framed and glazed photographic image of recipient in uniform
- Correspondence from the Commonwealth War Graves
- Baptism Prayer Book, inside cover inscribed 'John Reginald Dormer, 17th May 1896'; Book of Common Prayer, inside cover inscribed 'Reginald Dormer Age 11'
- Sunday School Prize Book, inside cover inscribed 'Rothley Church Sunday School, Reggie Dormer, 1906'; and other ephemera (lot)

3420 Private John Reginald Dormer, born Rothley, Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicestershire, 1896; initially enlisted 176th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, 14.6.1915; however he was discharged 10 days later, 'Claimed by Employer for War Contract'; he subsequently re-enlisted with the Leicestershire Yeomanry, and arrived in France at the end of 1916; he was moved to the front in the Somme, and in January 1917 wrote home, 'Well Mother I have had six weeks on the Somme and I can tell you I had enough of it as I expect you have seen in the papers (there is no mud like the Somme mud) we have had 3 weeks trench digging and we had to dig one another out of the mud in places so you can tell what it was like' (Letter included in lot refers); he became very familiar with those trenches as another letter, dated 13.6.1917, testifies, 'We have come out of the trenches we was in 21 days altogether and we are out for 9 days and I think we go in again for 9 more' (Ibid); having returned to the trenches he penned his final letter home, 19.6.1917, just three days before he was killed, 'I don't know when I shall be coming not for another month or two if the leave goes on as it is now. But we are all looking forward to one some time. Well Mother I expect by the time you receive this letter we shall be in the trenches again we goes tomorrow Wensday [sic] for 9 days. But do not worry any more than you can help as I shall look after myself as much as possible' (ibid); Dormer was killed in action, 22.6.1917, a letter from a friend to Dormer's mother adds further detail, 'the next night [I] went over to see some of them and later on saw some of the chaps who were there at the time, one was a S Nurse from Rothley and he told me a lot about it. He said it was a trench mortar that killed him and after the bombardment finished they had to dig them out of the trench, four of them together all killed. Reg got hit in the legs and S Nurse said if he had lived he would have lost both legs'; Private Dormer is buried in Villers-Faucon Communal Cemetery, France.

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Sold for
£520