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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 426

Three: Private R. W. Park, 1/4th Essex Regiment, who was killed in action at the First Battle of Gaza on 26 March 1917

1914-15 Star (2405 Pte. R. W. Park, Essex R.); British War and Victory Medals (2405 Pte. R. W. Park, Essex R.), good very fine or better (3)

Robert Walker Park was living at Forest Gate, Essex and studying divinity at the London College at the time of his enlistment in the Essex Regiment.

He first saw action in the 1/4th Battalion in Gallipoli, where he landed at 'C' Beach in Suvla Bay during the evening of 12 August 1915; by the end of the month the Battalion had suffered losses of 157 killed or wounded, with another 217 sick.

Private Park was killed in action on 26 March, as the 1/4th Essex advanced on the right of the line against Green Hill to engage heavy fire against the Welsh Division:

'As fierce fighting under a storm of rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire continued, eventually the determination and courage of the men paid off. Lodgements were made in the enemy lines and as hand-to-hand fighting ensued, trenches were cleared with the bayonet' (Gaza 1917, by Martin Glen, refers).

Aged 28, and the son of Henry George and Elizabeth Park of 31 Clara Road, Forest Gate, Essex, Park has no known grave and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.


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Sold for
£150