Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Victory Medal awarded to Private T. E. Dalton, Canadian Army Medical Corps, who was awarded the Military Medal aged 47 years - possibly the only Etonian to receive the M.M.

Victory Medal 1914-19 (524873 Pte. T. E. Dalton C.A.M.C.) good very fine £60-£80

M.M. London Gazette 3 July 1919.

Thomas Edmonstone Dalton was born in Eton, on 30 September 1872, the son of Thomas Dalton, Clerk of Holy Orders and Senior Mathematics Master at Eton College, and was educated at Eton and later Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. (1895) and M.A. (1901). Taking employment as a schoolmaster, the Eton School List later notes him as headmaster of a preparatory school in Tettenhall, Staffordshire. This was most likely Tettenhall College Preparatory School which specialised in educating the sons of churchmen.

Despite his high standing at such a young age, Dalton emigrated to Canada around 1901 and was married on 15 August 1910. He attested for the 62nd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in January 1915, but military life proved in marked contrast to that of a private school teacher. His C.E.F. Service Record makes plain: ‘Not likely to become an efficient soldier.’

Discharged at Vancouver on 15 December 1915, Dalton re-attested for the 138th Battalion, but was released for a second time on 17 April 1916 in consequence of liquor. His C.E.F. Service Record further notes his character as ‘bad’, adding insult to injury with a charge of 23 cents for the loss of a pair of socks. With grim perseverance, Dalton attested for a third time, this time for the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Sent to France as a reinforcement on 11 September 1916, he is mentioned in Stretcher Bearers at the Double: History of the Fifth Field Ambulance:
‘Do you remember those red-letter days on which Tommy Dalton received his periodical remittance check - when he used to collect his cronies, Billy Brown, Horace McKillop, Tommy Hawkey, et al., and adjourn to the nearest estaminet until the money was all gone?’

Admitted to his own Field Ambulance with bronchitis in the winter of 1916, Dalton was fortunate to escape with his life at Passchendaele: ‘States shell burst right beside him causing deafness which has remained’. Awarded the Military Medal, he later returned to Canada and was demobilised at Quebec on 1 July 1919. He died at Lavington, North Okanagan, British Columbia, on 15 May 1929.