A Collection of Medals to the 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps

Family group:

Pair: Private C. A. Hope, 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who was killed in action during operations in the Somme battles on the Western Front on 17 September 1916
British War and Victory Medals (R-19483 Pte. C. Hope. K. R. Rif. C.) with named Record Office enclosure; Memorial Plaque (Charles Hope) in card envelope with Buckingham Palace enclosure, nearly extremely fine

Pair: Lance Corporal A. W. Hope, Yorkshire Regiment, formerly Yorkshire Hussars, who was killed in action on the Western Front on 10 October 1917
British War and Victory Medals (5720 Pte. A. W. Hope. York. Hrs.); Memorial Plaque (Alfred William Hope) in card envelope; Memorial Scroll ‘L/Cpl. Alfred William Hope, Yorkshire Regt.’, nearly extremely fine (6) £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

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Charles Agar Hope was born in York in 1892, the second son of Henry, a lock keeper, and Sarah Ann Hope of Naburn Locks, York. He served with the 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps during the Great War on the Western Front, and was killed in action on 17 September 1916, just two days after the Yeoman Rifles memorable attack from Delville Wood on the enemy position to the East of Flers, carrying three lines of trenches and holding the captured ground until relieved. He is buried in the Guards Cemetery, Lesboeufs, France and commemorated by name on the 1914-18 War Memorial at the church of St. Matthew, Naburn.

Included with the lot are copies of the anguished correspondence (partially burnt) which took place between Sarah Ann Hope, the Regimental H.Q., No. 1 London General Hospital Medical Officers and a certain Corporal Baker in which Sarah Hope tries to establish clarity over her son’s status as a casualty and the possibility of him being a P.O.W.

One letter from Sarah Hope, dated 15 November 1916 following receipt of her son’s identity disc asks:
‘If possible will you please say,
1. If, without doubt, the disc was taken off the body or out of the kit bag belonging to the above, if the former,
2. Where is he buried and when, and,
3. If the pocket book and photographs which he always carried may be returned?’

She wrote again requesting the address of a Corporal J. E. Baker (13018) who had been a friend of her son and she believed had been with him. Baker was listed as wounded. Correspondence between K.R.R.C. H.Q. and the medical staff attending to Baker led to Corporal Baker’s regretful handwritten reply.
‘19483 Rfn C Hope, 21st Battn King’s Royal Rifles, was known to me but I am unable to give any information concerning him as D Company to which Hope was attached was separated from the rest of the Battalion two days before our action on Sept 15th 1916 and I have not seen him since that separation. Although I am in D Company I was attached to the Battn Hdqrs Signal Section.
C 13018 JE Baker Corpl. 21st King’s Royal Rifle C.’

Alfred William Hope was born in York in 1886, the eldest son of Henry and Sarah Ann Hope of Naburn Locks, York. He served with the Yorkshire Hussars and the Yorkshire Regiment during the Great War on the Western Front, and was killed in action on 10 October 1917. He has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium, and also on the 1914-18 War Memorial at the church of St. Matthew, Naburn.

Sold with original photographs of both recipients; two card identity tags and original photograph of youngest and surviving brother Harold Henry Hope, who saw service with the Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment; and a large quantity of copied research.