A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars

Three: Lieutenant T. O. B. Ditmas, Devonshire Regiment, who had served in Nairobi with the Camel Corps prior to the Great War, subsequently being killed in action on 14 January 1915, and posthumously M.I.D.

1914 Star, with clasp (Lieut., Devon R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut.); together with memorial plaque (Thomas Owen Bulteel Ditmas) extremely fine (4) £400-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Medals to Officers Who Died During The Two World Wars.

View
Collection

M.I.D. London Gazette 14 January 1915.

Thomas Owen Bulteel Ditmas was born at Plymouth on 31 December 1887; and educated at Kelly College, passing into the R.M.C. Sandhurst in 1905. He was gazetted to the Devonshire Regiment in August 1906, and joined the 1st Battalion in Rangoon in October of that year. Returning with his battalion from Burmah in December 1908, he then served at Tidworth, was promoted Lieutenant in January 1910, and, volunteering in the following year for service under the Colonial Office, he was sent to East Africa, joined the 3rd Battalion of the King’s African Rifles, and served with the Camel Corps in and around Nairobi. At one time he was in command at Kubal, on Lake Rudolph, one of the most isolated outposts of the British Empire. In May 1914, obtaining leave of absence, he returned to England, and volunteering on the outbreak of war, he asked for and obtained permission to rejoin his regiment, and proceeded with it on active service.

The day he was killed, a shell had burst in one of the supporting trenches occupied by his battalion, and the explosion at first caused some little excitement. Lieutenant Ditmas, who was in command of the trench, leaving the next senior officer and Sergeant Major to look after his company, ran out to see what had happened, and had just signalled back that there was nothing serious, and was laughing to steady his men, when he was shot dead by either a German sniper or a stray bullet. His body was brought back and afterwards buried in the cemtery at Wolverghem.

A Record of Service of Old Kelleians states: ‘...Recommended for the D.S.O. by O.C., 1st Devons for services rendered at Givenchy, and recommended again for the D.S.O. for services rendered at Festubert in November 1914. A Major of his regiment says “He was the best machine-gun officer I ever knew.” There is a memorial to Lieutenant Ditmas at St Peter’s Church, Parkstone, Dorset.