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Auction: 19003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 80

British War Medal 1914-20 (Lt. Commr. E. V. G. Schalch. R.N.R.), good very fine

Ernest Vernon Gerald Schalch was born on 21 November 1877 at London, the son of Irish-born Vernon Rudolph Schalch and his American wife Caroline. Schalch gained his Board of Trade Certificates as Second Mate, 13 May 1897 and First Mate, 23 March 1900, before being appointed Probationary Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve, 14 October 1904. He was posted to Defiance, Excellent and the pre-dreadnought battleship Goliath for 12 months of training. Promoted Lieutenant on 4 February 1907, Schalch served aboard Hyacinth during the Great War and at the Cape of Good Hope Station, Durban. Promoted Lieutenant-Commander, he reverted to the retired list on 14 October 1918 and moved to Cornwall, living variously at Trabryn, St. Agnes, and later at the St. Ives Bay Hotel.

His service record notes that his wife wrote to the Admiralty on 13 May 1933 stating that her husband died on 27 October 1931 at a hotel in Sydenham, the result of septic pneumonia attributed to an abscess on the liver, originating at Tanga, German South-West Africa, when 'he was shot through the liver during the taking of the town during the war'. She attempted to apply for any grant applicable, the outcome of which is not stated; sold with an exceptionally detailed and complex copied service record.


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Sold for
£50

Starting price
£30