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Auction: 17002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 304

(x) Sussex Yeomanry

'By now, however, the Battalion was tired. They had fought and moved continuously since September 1st [1918]. They had been heavily shelled most days and almost every night. They had been saturated with mustard gas on many occasions and were, almost to a man, to some extent the worse for this. Mud and chalk spattered, hollow-eyed from lack of sleep, wearied with continued fighting and digging, and croaking hoarsely from their gas-fouled throats, it would have been difficult for one who had not viewed their onslaught on the morning of September 18th to realize that they were present-day embodiments of that "Majesty with which British Infantry fights." And now they were on the eve of incurring the bitter losses which sooner or later fell to the lot of every unit of the British Infantry in this ruthless machine-made war.'

Those 'bitter losses' were incurred at Quennet Copse, near Hargicourt on 21 September 1918; The Sussex Yeomanry and 16th (Sussex Yeomanry) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, 1914-1919, by H. I. Powell-Edwards D.S.O., refers.

Pair: Lance-Corporal T. P. Butler, 16th (Sussex Yeomanry) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, who was killed in action at Quennet Copse on 21 September 1918

British War and Victory Medals (2802 Pte. T. P. Butler, Suss. Yeo.), together with the recipient's Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (Thomas Patrick Butler), and watch fobs (3), including one engraved to 'T. B.' for a 1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment tug-of-war competition, 1902, good very fine (6)

Thomas Patrick Butler was aged 42 years at the time of his death in action, an 'old sweat' who had been a member of the Sussex Volunteers as far back as 1902. Born in Dublin, he was living in Sussex at the time of the Great War, where his parents, Dr. N. J. and Mrs. W. Butler were living at Elm Grove, Brighton. His name is commemorated on a special memorial in Ste. Emilie Valley Cemetery, Viller-Faucon, France; sold with copied research, including MIC confirming the above entitlement.

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Sold for
£190