A Collection of Medals to the 9th and 12th Lancers

Three: Lance-Corporal J. S. Anstead, 9th Lancers, who was wounded in the charge at Audregnies in August 1914

1914 Star, with copy clasp (4688 L. Cpl. J. Anstead. 9/Lrs.); British War and Victory Medals (L-4688 Pte. J. S. Anstead. 9-Lrs.) polished, nearly very fine (3) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 9th and 12th Lancers.

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James Samuel Anstead was mobilized at Tidworth in August 1914 and served with “C” Squadron in France and Flanders from 15 August 1914. He was wounded in the charge at Audregnies on 24 August 1914 and rejoined his regiment on 1 November. Admitted to hospital on 9 January 1915 and invalided to England until January 1916. He was later attached to the Machine Gun Corps. Sold with research notes and copied m.i.c.

The 9th Lancers’ charge at Audregnies and the first V.C. of the European War

‘When the war broke out, the 9th Lancers left Tidworth for the front, as one of the three regiments in the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, the one under General De Lisle. During the fighting around Mons on Sunday, August 23rd, they were in reserve, but not for long did they remain there. On the 24th our 5th Division was in a very tight place, and the cavalry was sent to its assistance, the 2nd Brigade reaching the scene of the action first. The Germans were advancing in great masses, so near the village of Audregnies, General De Lisle ordered his men to dismount and to open fire on them. They did so, but the enemy still came on in good order. The general then decided on a charge, and for this chose the 9th Lancers who, at the word of command, mounted their horses and rode steadily at the enemy.

It was Balaclava over again. The squadrons rode to death, and the colonel, so we were told, said that he never expected a single lancer to return. In face of a torrent of shot and shell from guns and rifles, they dashed on until they found themselves against two lines of barbed wire, where men and horses fell over in all directions. This ended the charge. The survivors were ordered to return into shelter, and out of more than four hundred who had ridden out, only seventy two at first answered their names, Later some two hundred others turned up, but the regiment had lost heavily. Major V. R. Brooke D.S.O. was among the killed. However, the charge was not altogether fruitless. The Lancers had drawn the enemy’s fire and so had done something to help the harassed 5th Division. One trooper described the charge as "magnificent but horrible", while a Frenchman who rode with them wrote: "My God! How they fell."

But the Lancers had not finished their days work. When the survivors arrived at a railway embankment near Doubon, they found themselves in the company of some gunners, who had been driven from their guns with heavy loss. Captain F. O. Grenfell, now the senior officer of the Lancers, who had been wounded in the charge, but had managed to keep his squadron together, went out into the open, and at the peril of his life, found a way of saving the guns. On his return, he asked the men to follow him. Leaving their horses, they rushed out, reached the abandoned guns, and trundled them into safety. For this heroic deed, Grenfell received the Victoria Cross.’ (Extracted form The War Illustrated dated October 9th 1915).