Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private G. Downes, Middlesex Regiment, who died of wounds in March 1915

1914 Star (L-13493 Pte., 2/Middx. R.); British War and Victory Medals (L. 13493 Pte., Middx. R.), together with related Memorial Plaque (George Downes), good very fine (3) £180-220

George Downes was born at Spitalfields, London and enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment in April 1911, aged 19 years, direct from the 6th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Special Reserve). Stationed in Malta with the 2nd Battalion on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was embarked for the U.K. in the following month, and thence, on 7 November, for France. Downes subsequently died of wounds at No. 10 General Hospital, Rouen on 18 March 1915, having been admitted with a gunshot wound in his left leg and a fractured right arm - injuries probably received in action at St. Eloi on the previous day. He was buried in St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen; sold with a file of research, including copied service record and receipts signed by his father for the above described awards, dated 1920-21.