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Auction: 17003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 541

Three: Corporal W. J. A. Tilley, Royal Marines Light Infantry, attached Royal Naval Division, who was killed in action at Gavrelle Windmill in the battle of Arras in April 1917, arguably the bloodiest action in the history of that distinguished corps

1914 Star, with clasp (CH. 13677 Corpl. W. J. A. Tilley, R.M. Brigade); British War and Victory Medals (CH. 13677 Cpl. W. J. A. Tilley, R.M.L.I.), the second with officially re-impressed naming, extremely fine (3)

William John Alfred Tilley was born at Margate, Kent in June 1888 and enlisted in the Royal Marines Light Infantry as a boy bugler at Deal in April 1903.

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was drafted to the R.M. Brigade and embarked for Dunkirk, where he served from 20 September until 2 October, prior to participating in the defence of Antwerp. Tilley subsequently participated in the Gallipoli operations, from late May 1915 until the evacuation of the peninsula in January 1916.

Re-embarked for France in the summer of 1916, he served in the 4th Entrenching Battalion until transferring to the 1st Battalion, R.M. Brigade in November of the same year. It was in this capacity - and having gained his Corporal's stripes - that he was killed in action at the Gavrelle Windmill in the battle of Arras on 28 April. On that date, he was among 1,000 casualties suffered by the ranks of the 1st and 2nd R.M.L.I., the heaviest losses inflicted on distinguished corps in a single day: at one point in the action an overwhelming enemy counter-attack was stemmed by the senior officer's rapid enlistment of his H.Q. staff, cooks and bottle-washers among them.

Tilley, the son of William and Clara Tilley of Mill Road, Deal, Kent, is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; sold with copied research, including local newspaper obituary with portrait photograph.


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Sold for
£280