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Auction: 25112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 239

'A special service was held last month at St. Peter’s Church in the memory of Lieutenant Roger Gelderd Somervell who has given his life for his King and his Country on the battlefield of Neuve Chapelle. The officer in command of his company had said: 'I can’t tell you what a help he was to me all day, and a more gallant officer I have never seen. The men would have followed him anywhere.' - a moving testimonial published in the Great Haseley Parish Magazine of June 1915.

The Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque awarded in memory of Second Lieutenant R. F. C. Gelderd-Somervell, Grenadier Guards, an Old Etonian who was mortally wounded in 1915 on the Western Front

Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque (Roger Frederick Churchill Gelderd-Somervell), sometime lacquered and previously mounted, good very fine

Roger Frederick Churchill Gelderd-Somervell, son of Frederick and Emma Gelderd-Somervell of Haseley Manor, was born on 12 March 1885 at Reigate, Surrey. After attending a preparatory school in Oxford, Gelderd-Somervell became a boarder at Eton College (College House) before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1904. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards on 15 August 1914 (London Gazette 4 September 1914, refers), the unit was in Belgium by October that year and participated in many of the confused and difficult actions which characterised those first few months on the Western Front.

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10 - 13 March 1915) involved an Allied attempt to assault and break through the German defences around the village of the same name - however, despite initial success the attack could not be exploited and was eventually abandoned after numerous German counter-attacks. Lance-Corporal Wilfred Dolby Fuller and Private Edward Barber of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards would both be awarded the Victoria Cross (the latter posthumously) for their actions on 12 March during the battle; Gelderd-Somervell died on 11 March, just one day short of his 30th birthday, and is commemorated upon the Le Touret Memorial. It is worthy of note that his M.I.C. states he was also an Interpreter and attached to the Intelligence Corps, and his medals were sent to his parents at Haseley Manor, Wallingford.

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Sold for
£210

Starting price
£110