A medal collection assembled by a late Second World War serviceman from Cheshire sold for £50,000 last week.
01/09/2025
The 145-lot collection, which belonged to Edward Ernest Butler, known as Ted, was consigned by his family to Halls Fine Art’s militaria, naval and aviation auction in Shrewsbury.
The medals primarily related to the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) and Cheshire and Gurkha Regiments, including several Distinguished Conduct gallantry medal groups.
The collection’s top seller was a Great War Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) group awarded to Colour-Sergeant Major Frederick J. Meachin, Cheshire Regiment, who was helped to escape from Belgium by British nurse Edith Cavell.
The medal group eclipsed its pre-sale estimate of £1,500 to sell for £6,500.
A Great War Military Medal group awarded to early prisoner of war Temporary Company Quartermaster-Sergeant William George Barrow, of the Cheshire Regiment sold for £3,000. Barrow was wounded and captured in 1914 and released to neutral Holland in February, 1918.
A Military General Service Medal 1783–1814 with six clasps, awarded to Sergeant William Shackleton, 53rd (Shopshire) Regiment of Foot, sold for £2,200. The medal was one of only nine awarded to the regiment with same clasp combination.
A group of mainly General Service Medals to Gurkha Regiments sold for £1,900 while a Boer War Tribute Medal presented to Edwin Hopley by the town of Winsford, recognising his patriotism and valour serving in the Transvaal War as Sergeant in the 22nd Company Imperial Yeomanry, sold for £1,650.
Another notable lot was a Great War ‘Conspicuous Gallantry’, Distinguished Conduct and Military Medal trio awarded to Lance Sergeant John Purcell, 1st Battalion KSLI, which sold for £1,400.
Born in 1894, Purcell served with 1st KSLI and Royal Army Medical Corps. His DCM citation relates to an attack near Fayet in France on September 24, 1918, where he took command, after the death of the platoon commander and led bombing parties to storm enemy posts and suffered a head wound from machine gun and snipers fire.
A Great War Distinguished Conduct Medal group presented to Sergeant T. H. Hulse, 115th Railway Company Royal Engineers sold for £1,050. Sgt Hulse, from Crewe, was recognised for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst constructing a railway “under the most trying conditions”.
Also from the collection, a scarce Meanee Hyderabad 1843 Scinde Medal awarded to George Bradbury of the 22nd (Cheshire) Foot Regiment sold for £1,000
Born in Sandbach in 1926, Ted worked for the Westminster Bank in Winsford and joined the Royal Navy in 1944, training as a coder and serving in the Far East, part of the time alongside the14h Army and Gurkha units.
His service took him to Malaya, Singapore and Siam and witnessed Japanese soldiers surrender in both countries.
He bought his first medal on Crewe Market in the late 1940s and spent many hours writing letters, researching and reading around the subject. He focused on the medals purchased, the soldiers they belonged to and the conflicts in which they were engaged.
Ted, who died in 2004, purchased his medals from leading auctions and individual collectors and felt great affiliation and affection towards the Gurkhas, with whom he served.
Other leading prices in the auction included £2,300 for a Second World War Distinguished Flying Medal group awarded to Squadron Leader Charles Gordon Saunders, 6 Squadron, RAF. He flew reconnaissance and co-operation operations across Palestine and the Western Desert, was captured near Tobruk in April, 1941 and was later a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III.
A collection of 15 German Third Reich lots, including daggers and other items, which belonged to a late Shropshire collector sold for nearly £4,000
A scarce Great War officer’s uniform grouping which belonged to Second Lieutenant Arthur Charles Sewell Simon (1890-1968) of the 1/5th North Staffordshire Regiment, sold for £2,500, while a Hong Kong Plague 1894 Medal awarded to Lance Sergeant Edward Chetta of King's Shropshire Light Infantry sold for £1,650.
One of the more unusual lots in the auction was a telescope gifted by Admiral Lord Nelson to Lieutenant Edward Gascoigne Palmer (1789-1860), of the Royal Navy, which sold for £1,800.
A poignant First World War casualty group relating to Lieutenant James Alexander Stewart Burges, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, sold for £1,550, a Pusser's reproduction oak ice bucket in the form of a Royal Navy rum mixing barrel found a buyer at £1,400 and a large collection of more than 300 Second World War photographs made £1,150.
A Second World War MK2 British Paratroopers or Airborne Troops steel helmet with painted Polish eagle insignia sold for £950 and a First World War bomb disposal manual owned by Captain J. S. Drake, 9th Bomb Disposal Company, Royal Engineers, made £650.
For more information, please contact Caroline Dennard, Halls Fine Art’s militaria specialist, on Tel: 01743 450700 or Email: fineart@hallsgb.com
+44 (0)1743 450 700
fineart@hallsgb.com
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