Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Private W. Downs, 1st Grenadier Guards

Military Medal, G.V.R. (18155 Pte. W. Downs. 1/G. Gds.); 1914-15 Star (18155 Pte. W. Downs. G. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals (18155 Pte. W. Downs. G. Gds.) mounted as worn, good very fine (4) £340-£380

M.M. London Gazette 14 May 1919.

Walter Downs was born at Atherstone, Warwickshire, and attested for the Grenadier Guards at Nuneaton on 7 September 1914, aged 21, an engine driver by trade. He went to France with the 1st Battalion on 16 March 1915, and was severely wounded by a gunshot in the right shoulder on 2 June 1915. After a period recuperating in England, he rejoined his battalion in France on 27 October 1915. He was wounded a second time on 24 September 1918, this time by a gunshot in the left shoulder, the cumulative effect of these wounds causing numbness and weakness to the spine and right arm. He was finally discharged on 18 April 1919. Sold with copied attestation papers.