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Auction: 24111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 294

His colonel described him as a most gallant officer, and under the heaviest fire he always set a splendid example of devotion to duty. In July last he was in hospital three times with a shrapnel wound in the arm, received whilst in one of the big engagements.

(The Midland Mail 15 December 1916, refers)

Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque (Edward Keith Head), mounted for hanging at 12 o'clock, good very fine

Edward Keith Head was born at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire in January 1894, the son of Edward and Margaret Head of 19a Castle Street. His father is listed in the 1901 census as an 'Organist and Professor of Music' and the younger Head was doubtless affected by this. He attended Leeds University and was studying to join the Church when war broke out in 1914.

Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 2 September with the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment, Head was posted to the 4th (Hallamshire) Battalion. He was to enter the war in France the next year on 13 April 1915 and served there throughout the heavy fighting that followed. Head lost his brother Leslie at the Battle of Loos that same year.

The Battalion went into action at Thiepval Wood in the first week of the Somme Offensive and continued to see action over the next few months with Head being promoted Lieutenant on 8 July. He was severely wounded in the trenches, likely sometime in early September and left with a shattered skull. Returning to Britain his prognosis appeared good but after three months of treatment he died on 11 December 1916. He is buried at Wellingborough (London Road) Cemetery; sold together with copied research including census data, newspaper articles and a Commonwealth War Graves certificate.

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Sold for
£170

Starting price
£30