Medals from the Collection of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum

Three: Sergeant H. M. Purnell, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

1914-15 Star (1656 Sjt. H. M. Purnell. Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (1656 Sjt. H. M. Purnell. Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.) the 1914-15 Star with an engraved embellished line or frame around the rank and name, otherwise very fine (3) £60-£80

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.

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Hendrick Moore Purnell was born at Greenwich on 4 June 1892 and attested for the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at Culham on 30 September 1912. Promoted Corporal on 5 September 1914, and Sergeant on 28 September 1915, he served with the 4th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, and suffered a severe hernia at Ploegsteert in April 1915, due to over exertion on active service. He was discharged on 22 August 1916, being no longer fit for military service, and was awarded a Silver War Badge, No. 322962. He died in Leicester in June 1960.

Sold with a subdued darkened cap badge of the O.B.L.I.; two darkened O.B.L.I. collar badges; a pair of darkened brass ‘Oxf & Bucks’ shoulder titles, one lacking a fixing lug; a postcard sized O.B.L.I. group photograph believed to contain the recipient; and a small collection of wartime German ‘bring back’ souvenirs, the majority in relic condition, including an Imperial German Great War Iron Cross 2nd Class, a small brass crucifix with black inlay and the figure of Christ on the cross, an Imperial German WWI Wound Badge, corroded to the front but with a silvered reverse, so possibly 2nd Class, a small German soldiers brass or plated note book in the form of a fob on a chain, and three WWI Imperial German uniform buttons, one with an incised ‘K’ to the centre.