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Auction: 24112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 888

Army Rifle Association Medal, white metal, 440mm, awarded for Skill with the Rifle, engraved '1920. Cpl F. Huxley. 4th Worc. Rgt. 2nd Individual British Forces on the Rhine', a couple of light edge bruises, otherwise very fine

Edmund Thomas Ladbrooke Huxley was born in Wickhamford in 1901, the son of a former soldier of the Worcestershire Regiment. He went on to become a soldier himself in his father's old regiment. Named after his father, he was the eldest of five children of Edmund Thomas Huxley and Rose Ellen (née Bradley), who had married earlier that summer. Edmund's village of birth was given as Wickhamford in the 1911 census.

Edmund's father, Edmund Huxley (1872-1929), was the eldest of eight children of Edmund Huxley and his wife, Mary (née Sharp). The Huxleys, who had moved from place to place in the 1870s, had settled in Wickhamford by the early 1880s; Mary Huxley hailed from the neighbouring village of Badsey. By 1890, family life had been disrupted as, when the youngest child Rose was baptised in October, the note in the register said "married woman living apart from her husband". Edmund Huxley by this time was not at home as he had enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment in 1889 and served in India from 1892 until 1896.

Sometime in the first decade of the 20th century, Edmund Thomas Ladbrooke Huxley moved with his parents from Wickhamford to Evesham. Edmund enrolled at Swan Lane Infant School, Evesham in 1906. At the time of the 1911 census the Huxleys lived at Fleece Yard, Evesham, by now with four sons and a daughter. Edmund's parents were eventually to have eleven children, the last in 1925. Edmund Senior (aged 38) was a general labourer.
Edmund Junior was too young to have served in the Great War, but enlisted in the Army on 30 January 1919 (No. 5240537) in his father's old regiment, at the age of 18.

It appears that he was initially posted to Germany to join the British Forces of the Rhine, with the 4th Battalion, in 1920, where he took part in an Army Rifle Association competition and took 2nd place in the Individual Shooting event. By this time, he had already been promoted to Corporal. He was promoted to Sergeant on 2 January 1926 and served throughout the inter-war years. He became Colour Sergeant on 1 November 1933 and in this capacity held the post of Warden of the Keys at the Tower of London; then CQMS with 'B' Coy, 1st Battalion by October 1938.

Huxley was awarded his Army L.S. & G.C medal with gratuity in 1937 (A.O. 224/37).

He served in Palestine as a Colour Sergeant with the 1st Battalion, for which he was awarded the General Service Medal, clasp Palestine, issued on 2 October 1944 and sent to him in India, where he was now serving with the 2nd Battalion. Huxley was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major by 1940, by which time he had been drafted into the Indian Army. Whilst in India, he was a member of the Quetta Lodge of the Freemasons. In 1943, Huxley was commissioned as a Lieutenant and according to the limited information available at present, was on the 'Special List'. The London Gazette of 24 September 1943 mentions his promotion from R.S.M. to Lieutenant in a section headed "Spec List" of QMS (I.A.) to be Lts, (he was discharged as R.S.M. to a Commission on 19th June, 1943).

Edmund Huxley married Louisa Taylor in March 1930, and they had three daughters and a son between 1930 and the mid-1940s. A war-time newspaper item referred to his Army Service and also stated the he attended Evesham Council Schools. He was said to have been a keen footballer, whose prowess had earned him a number of medals. He played for the Army on a number of occasions and was a member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (R.A.O.B.). This article gives his name as "Edmund (Pat) Thomas Huxley". Edmund retired from the army in 1946 and obtained employment with the Evesham Borough Council, from which he fully retired at the age of 65 in 1966. After the Second World War, his name appeared in the press once more in 1958, following some damage at Evesham Town Hall. He was the caretaker of the Public Hall and lived at 18 Battleton Road, Evesham, at that time. A gang of youths without tickets had been trying to gain admittance to a dance, but were prevented from doing so by Edmund Huxley.

He died on 13 August 1974 at age 73, his wife Louisa having predeceased him on 8 July 1970, aged 60.


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Sold for
£45

Starting price
£10