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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 747

A Scarce 1916 Early ´Battle of the Somme´ Casualty Pair to Captain A.M. Blair, South Lancashire Regiment, Late Ceylon Volunteer Company Gloucestershire Regiment Queen´s South Africa 1899-1902, three clasps, Orange Free State, South Africa 1902; Transvaal, in this order, unofficial rivets between 2nd and 3rd clasps, as issued (7532 Pte. A.M. Blair. Ceylon V. Coy. Glouc: R.); British War Medal (Capt. A.M. Blair.), good very fine (2) Estimate £ 130-160 Captain Alexander Macpherson Blair, born Callender, Perth, Scotland, 1874; was a Planter in Ceylon and a member of the Ceylon Planters Rifles in the early 1900´s; in 1902 the 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, after sustaining over 200 casualties during the Boer War, was sent to Ceylon to guard Boer Prisoners of War; shortly after their arrival, a suggestion was made that the island defence volunteers would be prepared to send a force of men to replace the Glosters on the African mainland; the idea was accepted and the volunteers, including Blair who enlisted 19.4.1902, were to be called the Ceylon Volunteer Company, Gloucestershire Regiment, they numbered 3 Officers and 107 N.C.O.´s and men; the latter served in South Africa between 23.4.1902-31.5.1902 and during that period they were entitled to the clasps Orange Free State, South Africa 1902 and Transvaal - the clasps were issued in this order (hence the unofficial rivets on Blair´s medal) as the Transvaal clasp was granted to the Company after a late claim; Blair was discharged 12.8.1902, and stayed in Ceylon until the outbreak of the Great War when he was commissioned Captain, Second-in-Command of the Ceylon Planters Rifles; he served during the Great War in the Egyptian Theatre of War from, 17.11.1914; he subsequently transferred to the 10th (Service) Battalion South Lancashire Regiment and was attached to the 2nd Battalion in 1916 when they were on standby for the 1st Day of the Battle of the Somme; two days later at dawn Blair accompanied the Battalion across the River Ancre by the Black Horse Bridge, east of Authille, where they were thrown into the attack on the heavily defended village of Thiepval; the Battalion War Diary records that 9 Officers (including Blair) and 87 other ranks were killed in action, 3.7.1916; Blair is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Sold for
£300