Three: Captain G. F. Wells, Royal Engineers, who was mentioned in despatches and died of wounds in June 1915

1914 Star, with clasp (Capt: G. F. Wells. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. G. F. Wells.) good very fine (3) £200-£300

M.I.D. London Gazette 22 June 1915.

Guy Franey Wells was born on 17 June 1882, youngest son of Charles Wells, a wealthy and prominent brewer in the Bedford area and his wife Josephine of Newnham House, Bedford. Charles Wells had bought his first brewery in 1876, sited on the banks of the River Ouse in Bedford, which subsequently became one of the largest breweries in the country.

Educated at Bedford Grammar School, he passed direct into the R.M.A., Woolwich, from where he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in July 1901. He chose the Balloon Section, in which he served for five years, and was twice sent out to Gibraltar to make experiments with a balloon in which he ascended over the harbour. He was promoted Lieutenant in April 1904, and for the following five years he was stationed at Gibraltar. He returned to Chatham in 1911, and in January 1912, he was promoted to Captain, becoming Adjutant in September 1914. Captain Wells went to the Front in August 1914, where he served till 15 June 1915, when he was hit by a fragment of shell during the night, while superintending work in the trenches. He died, a few hours after he had been wounded, in a Field Hospital, and was buried in Bedford House Cemetery, Ypres. He was mentioned in Sir John French’s Despatch of 31st May, 1915.

Sold with copied research together with a Royal Engineers cap badge.