Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Captain V. G. Gundrey, 14th Battalion, The Welch Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.); Defence and War Medals, good very fine (5) £1000-1200

M.C. London Gazette 10 January 1917: ‘Temp. 2nd Lt., Welsh R. For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led a successful raid with great courage and determination, capturing twenty prisoners and accounting for many of the enemy.’

Bar to M.C. London Gazette 15 February 1919, details 20 July 1919: ‘T./Lieut., M.C., 14th Bn. Welsh R. For marked gallantry and devotion to duty in the attack across the River Selle on October 20th, 1918. He went forward under heavy fire to ascertain the position, and finding two companies not quite on the final objective he led them forward and filled a gap in the line. He then went round the whole line and sited the fire trenches, his runner getting shot by his side. His coolness and capacity were of the utmost value and materially assisted in the success of the day.’

Sold with two original photographs, a newspaper obituary, and 19 pages of typed intelligence messages relating to the action in which he won the Bar to his M.C.

Victor Gareth Gundrey was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the 12th (Reserve) Bn. Welch Regiment on 5 November 1915. He went overseas with the 14th Battalion, raised in Swansea with a strong contingent from Swansea Football and Cricket Clubs, and won his M.C. for gallantry whilst leading a highly successful raid on the enemy position known as ‘High Command Redoubt’ on the night of 17 November 1916. He was wounded in action shortly after winning a Bar to his M.C. in November 1918. After the war he worked a s a film director with the Gaumont British Film Corporation. Among his more notable successes were Ivor Novello’s Symphony in Two Flats, and The Hound of the Baskervilles.