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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 646

Six: Private J. Graham, Connaught Rangers, who died of wounds on 4 September 1916 during the Battle of Guillemont, an action which earned a Battalion comrade the V.C.

Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal (6482 Pte. J. Graham, 1st. Connaught Rang:); King's South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (6482 Pte. J. Graham. Con: Rang:); 1914 Star (6482 Pte. J. Graham. 1/Conn: Rang.); British War and Victory Medals (6482 Pte. J. Graham. Conn. Rang.); Delhi Durbar 1911, unnamed as issued, very fine and better (6)

John Graham served in South Africa during the Boer War and then France from 26 September 1914 with the 1st Battalion, Connaught Rangers. He transferred to the 6th Battalion, Connaught Rangers and fought in the opening stage of the Battle of Guillemont where British forces attempted to advance the right flank of the Fourth Army and eliminate the salient further north at Delville Wood.

On 3 September the attack succeeded in capturing Falfemont Farm, Leuze Wood and Guillemont, with a 4,500 yard advance across a 2000 yard front, but casualties were high and there was considerable criticism of Commanders for ignorance of the climate of the Somme region. Piecemeal attacks bogged down, whilst the ferocity of German counter-attacks led historian Wilfred Miles to note in the History of the Great War that the defence of Guillemont was judged by some observers to be the best performance by the German Army on the Western Front.

That same day, comrade Private Thomas Hughes, won the Victoria Cross for dashing out in front of his Company, capturing a hostile machine gun and bringing back three or four prisoners. Graham succumbed to his wounds the next day and is buried in the Corbie Communal Cemetery Extension on the Somme; sold with copied research and MIC.


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Sold for
£1,000