Medals from the Collection of Peter and Dee Helmore

Pair: Lieutenant A. P. Marsden, Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry, who was one of the oldest men without previous military experience to see service at the Front in the Great War

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. A. P. Marsden.) minor edge nicks, good very fine (2) £140-£180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter and Dee Helmore.

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Brigadier Brian Parritt Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, March 2008.

Alfred Perkins Marsden was born in Blackheath, Lewisham, Kent, in 1854. A retired solicitor of private means living in Torquay, aged 61, and with no evidence of previous military experience, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Devon Yeomanry on 24 November 1915 and was promoted Lieutenant on 1 July 1917. He embarked for Egypt on 25 May 1918 before joining the 16th (Devon Yeomanry) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment in France in June 1918. The 16th Battalion was involved in heavy fighting in latter part of the Great War during September and October, being present during the attack on Moislains, the advance over Canal du Nord, the attack on Ronssoy, and the attacks on Ėpéhy, Lys Valley, and Neuve Chapelle, and suffered their last casualties at Baisieux on 24 October 1918. He is shown in the 1921 Census as aged 67 and living in Torquay as ‘Lieutenant Devon Yeomanry Retired’; he died in Torquay on 25 March 1936, aged 82, his death certificate recording him once again as ‘Lieutenant Devon Yeomanry Retired’.

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