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Auction: 23112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 550

A tragic 'Hundred Days Offensive' casualty's pair to Private O. J. Richards, 10th (1st Gwent) Battalion, South Wales Borderers, who was killed in action less than a fortnight before the armistice on 29 October 1918

British War and Victory Medals (31357 Pte. O. J. Richards. S.Wales Bord.), good very fine (2)

Oliver John Richards was born at Treforest, Glamorgan in 1893, the son of John and Sarah Richards of 78 Wood Road, Treforest, Glamorgan. Richards appears in Railwaymen Died In The Great War, working as a Signalman with the Barry Railway prior to the Great War. Enlisting at Pontypridd with the South Wales Borderers and was posted to the 10th Battalion in France.

This unit arrived in France in 1916, seeing heavy fighting at the Somme, Passchendaele and before the Hindenburg Line. They were much in service during the Hundred Days Offensive where the Allies finally rolled back the German forces in France. They were stationed in the Brigade Reserve in Late October 1918 seeing heavy gas shelling between 28-29 October. Tragically Richards is listed as killed in action on 29 October, likely as a result of the German gas attack, his death came just thirteen days before the end of the war. He is buried at the Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension and the Barry Railway Memorial; sold together with copied census information, an extract from Railwaymen Died In The Great War and Soldiers died in the Great War along with a Commonwealth War Graves certificate and Registry of Effects extract.

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Estimate
£100 to £140

Starting price
£70