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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 752

(x) Family Group:

Four: Quarter-Master Sergeant C. O. Stratton, London Regiment, who was wounded at High Wood on the Somme in September 1916

1914-15 Star (1134 Pte. C. O. Stratton, 15-Lond.R.); British War and Victory Medals (1134 A.C. Sjt. C. O. Stratton, 15-Lond. R); Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.V.R. (530009 Sjt. C. O. Stratton 15/Lond.R.), very fine

Three: Pilot Officer J. O. Stratton, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, nearly extremely fine (7)

Charles Owen Stratton was born at Tottenham, Middlesex, the son of Alice Jane and Charles Owen Stratton, in 1889. Appointed as a Temporary Boy Clerk with the Post Office on 29 March 1905, he was promoted to Assistant Clerk (Abstractor) with the Customs and Excise Department on 16 June 1909.

He served in France from 17 March 1915 with the 15th (Prince of Wales's Own, Civil Service Rifles) Battalion, London Regiment, and saw action at High Wood on 15 September 1916 where stiff opposition meant that just 150 men of the 1/15th reached their objective; Charles suffered a gunshot wound to the left shoulder.

After prolonged determination and sacrifice the wood was eventually captured by 1 p.m., but author Terry Norman later wrote in The Hell They Called High Wood: The Somme 1916, 'Ironically, the successful divisional commander (Major-General Charles Barter) was rewarded with dismissal for "wanton waste of men". The loss of experienced men was most evident during the failed attack on the Butte de Warlencourt and Warlencourt Line on 7 October where Battalion records note that more than half of the attacking force had 'never been under fire and had joined a few days before' (Ray Westlake: British Battalions on the Somme, refers). An indication as to the savagery experienced here can be seen at the London Cemetery and Extension; of 3,872 Great War burials, only 759 - less than 20% - are identified.

Returning to England to recuperate, Charles married Ethel Mary Bennett at Hammersmith on 20 January 1917. He survived the war and was disembodied on 13 February 1919, dying at Blackpool, Lancashire in 1946; sold with a pair of T/15/London shoulder titles with back plates, and a cap badge.

John Owen Stratton was born in Winchester, Hampshire, in 1917. He initially served as a Leading Aircraftsman in the Royal Air Force and was commissioned Pilot Officer on 8 February 1943 (London Gazette 18 June 1943, refers); in 1944 he married Mary L. Donnelly in Toronto, Canada.


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Sold for
£190