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Auction: 18001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 545

Six: Colonel C. W. Berkeley, London Regiment, late City of London Imperial Volunteers, who having been severely wounded during the Boer War, commanded 2/7th Battalion 'Shiny Seventh' London Regiment during the Great War

Queen's South Africa Medal 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (Capt. C. W. Berkeley. C.I.V.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Col. C. W. Berkeley.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19 (Lt. Col. C. W. Berkeley. 7-Lond. R.); Coronation 1902, unnamed as issued, silver; Territorial Decoration, E.VII.R., silver, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1909, with integral top riband bar, this adapted for mounting, reverse attractively engraved 'Lt. Col. C. W. Berkeley, 7th Battn. London Regt.', generally very fine and better (6)

Charles Walter Berkeley was born in August 1867, first son of Major-General Fredrick George Berkeley. Educated at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire, he served with the City of London Imperial Volunteers during the Boer War, being severely wounded at Florida on 29 May 1900 in the process. Berkeley saw action at the engagements at Houtnek, Vet River, Zand River and Doornkop.

During the Great War, he Commanded the 2/7th Battalion, London Regiment. First at home from their raising in November 1914, and then on the Western Front from 26 January 1917, where he led his men during their first engagement, during the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917. Heavily shelled and counter-attacked having taken a German trench, they gallantly held the position despite taking 120 casualties. He was duly mentioned in the despatches (London Gazette 23 July, 1917 refers). Berkeley led his Battalion to the Armistice, a period that witnessed his men engaged at Ypres, inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans in September having moved up the line through Genoa Farm. Having suffered heavily from gassing at Villers Bretonneux, during which they observed the first tank versus tank action in history, they led the opening attacks at the Battle of Amiens and finished the War at Beloil, Belgium; sold with copied MIC and research.

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Sold for
£1,700