A Small Collection of Great War Medals to the Royal Sussex Regiment

Pair: Private E. Bryant, 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, who was killed in action on the Western Front on 30 March 1918
British War and Victory Medals (SD-1872 Pte. E. Bryant. R. Suss. R.) good very fine

Pair: Private R. G. Coleman, 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
British War and Victory Medals (SD-2340 Pte. R. G. Coleman. R. Suss. R.) edge bruising, nearly very fine

Pair: Sergeant J. W. Moulds, 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
British War and Victory Medals (SD-1716 Sjt. J. W. Moulds. R. Suss. R.) edge bruise, very fine

Pair: Private E. Pellett, 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, who was severely wounded in the Battle of Boar’s Head on 30 June 1916, on the ‘day that Sussex died’
British War and Victory Medals (1543 Pte. E. Pellett. R. Suss. R.) contact marks, very fine (8) £100-£140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Great War Medals to the Royal Sussex Regiment.

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Ernest Bryant was born in Rye, Sussex, and attested for the Royal Sussex Regiment at Hastings, Sussex. He served with the 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, and was killed in action on 30 March 1918, whilst attached to the 8th (Pioneer) Battalion. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, France.

Sold with named Record Office enclosure for the British War Medal, named to ‘Miss E. Smith, 127 Ranclagh Road, Wall End, East Ham, E.’

Reginald George Coleman was born in Chichester, Sussex, in 1891, and having attested for the Royal Sussex Regiment, served with the 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front. He died at Steyning, Sussex, on 12 February 1957.

John W. Moulds, a native of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, attested for the Royal Sussex Regiment, and served with the 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front.

Ernest Pellett was born in Brighton in 1895, and attested for the Royal Sussex Regiment at Hove on on 14 November 1914. He served with the 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 3 March 1916, and was severely wounded in action by a gun shot wound to the head on 30 June 1916, on which date the Battalion, along with the other two South Downs Battalions, was involved in an attack on the Boar’s Head, a salient in the German lines near Richebourg, one of the number of diversionary operations intended to draw the enemy’s attention away from the Battle of the Somme which started the following day. Subsequently known as ‘the day Sussex died’, the three Battalions collectively suffered over 350 killed, and over 1,000 wounded or taken Prisoner of War. For his gallantry during this attack Company Sergeant Major Nelson Carter, also of the 12th (2nd South Downs) Battalion, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Evacuated to England, Pellett subsequently transferred to the Labour Corps on 1 October 1917, and was demobilized on 25 June 1919. He died in Brighton in 1943.

Sold with copied research.