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Auction: 24003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 248

(x) Pair: Trooper G. E. A. Stevens, 1st Life Guards, who was wounded in action during an Air Raid on Etaples Camp on 19 May 1918

British War and Victory Medals (4504 Tpr. G. E. A. Stevens. 1-L.Gds.), slight edge bruise, very fine (2)

George Edward Alfred Stevens was born in 1898 and was living at Finsbury Park when he was mobilised on 30 May 1917 and joined his unit in France in the Field on 17 May 1918. They were in camp at Etaples two days later when a German Air raid was launched on the camp and adjacent hospital.

'At about 11 p.m. a warning came that enemy planes were on the move overhead, so lights were extinguished and we moved away to out tents… All was quiet so far, and we were just comfortable in our blankets when old Beasneys came scratching around our tent asking for a match. The drone of planes could be distinctly heard overhead, so somebody told him to run off to bed. But he must have got a match from somewhere, for the next instant he actually struck a light outside our tent. A fraction of a second later I heard the hiss of a falling bomb; there was a blinding flash, and then silence, except for a groan here and there among the wreckage of tents. I felt nothing in the way of pain. I tried to stand up, but discovered I could not. My left leg was smashed.'

(A survivor of the 19 May Etaples Raid as quoted from Horse Guards by Barney White-Spunner)

The raid lasted from 22:30 until 01:00 the next morning with two bombs landing in the centre of the Life Guards camp. 42 men were killed in the resulting blasts and another 83 wounded, including Stevens. Admitted to No. 26 General Hospital he was posted to the Base Depot in July 1918 and rejoined his unit after the armistice in December.

Returning to Britain he was demobilised on 31 March 1920, he appears on the 1939-45 Census living on Queenmore Road, Hornsley and working as a guard. Stevens died at Haringey in March 1985; sold together with copied research.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Estimate
£140 to £180

Starting price
£110