A Collection of Medals to Great War Casualties

Three: Lance-Corporal S. C. Akers, Wiltshire Regiment, who was killed in action on the Western Front on 13 June 1917

1914-15 Star (11823 Pte. S. C. Akers. Wilts: R.); British War and Victory Medals (11823 Pte. S. C. Akers. Wilts. R.); Memorial Plaque (Stanley Charles Akers) in card envelope, with Buckingham Palace enclosure, in outer OHMS envelope addressed to ‘Mr. H. C. Akers, 19 Hervey Park Rd, Walthamstow, London, E.17.’; together with eleven School Efficiency Medals, six awarded to Stanley Akers, and five awarded to the recipient’s brother Cecil Akers, covering the period 1906-10; and a Wiltshire Regiment lapel brooch, extremely fine (16) £120-£160

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Great War Casualties.

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Stanley Charles Akers was born in Haverhill, Suffolk, the son of Henry Charles Akers, and the elder brother of Cecil Henry Akers, and attested for the Wiltshire Regiment at Walthamstow, Essex. Advanced Lance-Corporal, he served as a Company Runner with the 6th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 19 July 1915, and was killed in action on 13 June 1917:
‘Stanley was in charge of the Runners of the Battalion and when I say that his work was particularly valuable I do not do so in order to praise him, but because this was the case. The Runners are selected from the bravest men in the Battalion and during the recent operations, when in the charge of your son, they were congratulated and thanked by the Commanding Officer for their splendid work.
Your son met his death on the night of 13 June, I believe about 11 o’clock at night. He had walked across from his own dugout to one about 15 yards away in order to warn one of his men for duty. Just when he was there a shell pitched at the mouth of this second dug-out and he was killed instantaneously.’ (letter to the recipient’s parents from Lieutenant N. L. Flower refers).

Akers is buried in Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery, Wytschaete, near Ypres, Belgium.

Sold with the named Record Office enclosure for the 1914-15 Star; various original official and personal letters written to the recipient’s family informing him of the recipient’s death; and copied research.