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Auction: 15003 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 13

The Unique Campaign Combination Group of Five to Corporal C. Burch, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Attached Telegraph Department, Later Sergeant, British Red Cross Society, and a Veteran of the Balkan-Turkish War 1912-13
India General Service 1854-95, one clasp, Waziristan 1894-5 (3485 Pte. C. Burch. 2nd. Bn. Arg: & Suth'd Highrs.); India General Service 1895-1902, V.R., two clasps, Relief of Chitral 1895, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, second clasp attached by means of two side plates (3485 Pte. C. Burch 2d. Argyll & Suther: High Tel: Dept.), unit partially officially corrected; Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, four clasps, Modder River, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Transvaal (3485 Pte. C. Burch, A. & S. Highrs:), initial officially corrected; King's South Africa 1901-02, two clasps (3485 Corpl: C. Burch. A. & S. Highrs:); British Red Cross Society Medal for the Balkan Wars 1912-13, silver (Hallmarks for Birmingham 1912), one clasp, Servia (Charles Burch.), with top 'Balkan War 1912-13' riband bar, edge bruise to QSA, contact marks, nearly very fine or better (5)

Sergeant Charles Burch, born Reigate, Surrey, 1870; enlisted in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and served as a Military Signaller with the Telegraph Department during operation in Waziristan 1894-5; served again with the Telegraph Department during the Relief of Chitral 1895; served with the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in South Africa; in a letter home from the Front, dated Paardeberg Drift, 20.2.1900, he wrote: 'Last Sunday we met the enemy two miles from camp, and fought from daylight till pitch dark. The Highland Brigade was again in the thick of it, and suffered terribly. I escaped by a miracle. A bullet passed through the top of my helmet two inches above my scalp; another went through my ammunition pouch at my side, bending up six cartridges like cork screws and exploding one. The third and last one went through my khaki jacket on the left breast, and passed along to the right side between shirt and jacket and out through my right breast pocket. Everyone says I was the luckiest man in the field that day. The way the Highlanders went into action under a galling fire and advanced as if on parade was superb, and a sight never to be forgotten. The enemy had us just in the same position as at Modder, they holding entrenched positions along the banks, and we right in the open veldt, and all day long under a burning sun. I am sorry to see my old regiment dwindling away, and the good men gradually getting fewer and fewer, but we must hope for the best. Lot of my old Indian chums are killed and wounded, and I shall miss their familiar faces and chaff knocking about the camp.' (The Surrey Mirror, March 1900 refers).

Charles Burch left the Army and joined the Welsh unit of the British Red Cross Society, and went with them as a Sergeant as part of a force of fifteen under the command of Captain H. St. M. Carter, R.A.M.C. to the Balkans, leaving London on the 12th November 1912, and ultimately arriving in Uskub, near Belgrade, in Serbia. There they opened up a hospital for 112 patients, before returning to England on the 27th January 1913.

Provenance: Taylor Collection, Christie, November 1990

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