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Auction: 23113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 410

'No battlefield on all the Western Front was more bitterly contested than was “Devil’s Wood”... [where] South African forces won their imperishable fame – grimly hanging on against overwhelming odds and repulsing counter attacks by troops five and six times their number.'

The Great War Campaign group of three awarded to Second-Class Warrant Officer C. G. Trenam, Bloemhof Commando and 3rd South African Infantry, who was severely wounded in July 1916 during the infamous Battle of Delville Wood

1914-15 Star (Pte C.G. Trenam Bloemhof Cdo.); British War and Bilingual Victory Medals (2nd C/W.O. C.G. Trenam. 3rd S.A.I.), mounted for wear, good very fine (3)

Provenance:
City Coins, Postal Medal Auction 70, October 2019, Lot 342.

Cecil George Trenam receives a comprehensive mention in the well-known South African book on the Battle of Delville Wood: 'Private Cecil George Trenam, 25, was a clerk and diamond digger from Bloemhof, OFS. He had served as a Trooper in the Bloemhof Commando serving under General Coen Britz during the Rebellion and in GSWA. On the 25 May 1915 Trenam was promoted Sergeant Major. After the GSWA campaign he joined the South African Brigade as a Private.
During the bombardment on 18 July shell splinters almost severed his right arm and shrapnel hit him in the neck. Although weak from loss of blood, Trenam staggered to a first aid post. He was delirious when stretcher-bearers carried him to an ambulance...He was taken to Tooting, then Richmond hospital. His right arm became gangrenous and he was not expected to survive. The surgeon, Capt. E.A. Leviseur, saved his arm from amputation.' ('Hold at all Costs! The Epic Battle of Delville Wood 1916', Uys, Ian, 2015, refers).

During recuperation, Trenam studied accountancy and learnt to write again with his badly-damaged right hand; he was repatriated to South Africa in 1918 and in March 1923 married a distant relative, Isabel Gardiner, who he had first met whilst in hospital five years previously. He is further entitled to a Silver War Badge (No. SA5898) and King's Certificate (No. 5693), and died in 1962.

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Sold for
£250

Starting price
£110