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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 828

A Poignant First Day Battle of Loos 10th Battalion Casualty Group of Three to Private W. Rivers, Gloucestershire Regiment 1914-15 Star (13311 Pte. W. Rivers. Glouc: R.); British War and Victory Medals (13311 Pte. W. Rivers. Glouc. R.), extremely fine (3) Estimate £ 140-160 13311 Private William Rivers, born Cheltenham, 1893; enlisted in the 10th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, September 1914, and went to France with his unit, August 1915, and took part in the attack on the first day of the Battle of Loos, 25.9.1915. He was killed when, having stopped to help a comrade who had been shot in the ankle, a shell fell directly on them, killing them both instantly. The Gloucesters suffered very heavy casualties that day, with fewer than 100 men alive and unwounded answering the roll call that evening. Private Rivers is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France. His three brothers all served in the Great War: Private Frank Rivers, Gloucestershire Regiment, died of wounds received in the Somme, 1.1.1917; Lance Corporal T.H. Rivers, Military Police, received the D.C.M. for rescuing a badly wounded man under heavy shell and machine-gun fire in Mesopotamia, February 1917; and Private Tom Rivers, Welch Regiment, was wounded at the Battle of Aisne.

Sold for
£220