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Auction: 23113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 632

(x) The Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal awarded to the remarkably long-served Quartermaster Sergeant R. D. Simms, 5th Lancers, later Squadron Quartermaster-Sergeant, Army Service Corps, who was discharged before the turn of the century but returned to the Colours in 1914, going on to be a founder member of the Comrades Association Masonic Lodge in Colchester

Army LS. & G.C., V.R. small letter reverse (3511. Q.r. Mr. Sgt. R. D. Simms 5/Lancers.), good very fine

Richard Dalton Simms was born at Curragh Camp Army Base, Kildare in 1859, the son of William and Mary Simms. Upon the retirement of his father the family moved to 5 High Street, Bridgnorth, where Simms senior lived as a pensioner and Instructor of Musketry. Enlisting with his father's unit, the 76th Regiment of Foot, as a Boy soldier on 11 February 1873 he was advanced 'Lad' on 11 December. Serving in that rank until 11 December 1875 he came of age and was appointed Private.

He was to serve around the United Kingdom for the next fifteen years, being appointed Sergeant Instructor of Musketry in 1881. However it seems this lack of active service chafed upon Simms and he applied for a transfer to the 5th Lancers, joining the Cavalry Depot on 29 March 1887. The next year Simms joined the unit in India, arriving on 20 November 1888 with the rank of Quartermaster Sergeant and Orderly Room Sergeant. Dalton served in India for ten years before returning to Britian on 10 February 1894 when he was discharged.

Employed as an Army Barrack Warden it was at this time that Simms was involved in the consecration of the Comrades Lodge. He was still acting as Army Barrack Warden with the Army Service Corps on the outbreak of the Great War. Simms immediately volunteered, being appointed Staff Quartermaster Sergeant the same day, on 18 November 1914. Entering the war in France on 29 May 1915 he served there for a year before being invalided on 29 March 1916. Serving at home for the next five months he was finally discharged for good on 11 August 1916. Returning to his work as a Barrack Warden, he died in Buckinghamshire in 1943.

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Sold for
£120

Starting price
£40