War heroes medals sell for £1.8k at auction

Colonel Cyril Chambers and his son Captain Peter Brassey Chambers were both awarded the Military Cross for wartime service.

The medals, which came with a suitcase full of documents and collectibles went under the hammer at Halls' in Shrewsbury.

The poignant collection sold at the Battlefield militaria and interiors auction at Battlefield, which coincided with the Great War centenary memorial services.

Colonel Chambers' medals included a CBE and a Great War Military Cross, which was awarded when he was a Lieutenant.

There was also a Commander's second type neck badge, 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory medals, awarded when he was a captain.

And a 1939-1945 Star, Defence medal, War medal and George VI Coronation medal.

Colonel Chambers took the shortest route to the battleground, volunteering with The Prince of Wales Volunteers and becoming a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment.

By 1915 he was appointed Captain, fought at Thiepval and helped to consolidate the Messines Ridge.

After the Great War, he was nominated by an Army Commander for a commission in the Regular Army.

After a short break from military command between the two World Wars, he once again applied for permanent service and became Adjutant to the 5th (Territorial) Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment.

His son, Peter, was born in 1924 and was educated at Monkton Combe School, Bath, where he excelled in several sports.

A Sergeant in the Officer's Training Corps, he was commissioned second Lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment, attached to the Chindits in 1944, winning the Military Cross in Burma during that year.

He was transferred to the Army Air Corps in May 1945 and was subsequently attached to the Sudan Defence Force and the Ethiopian Levies.

In August 1953, he was appointed Adjutant of 22nd Special Air Service Regiment and in July 1954 became officer commanding H.Q. Squadron, 22nd S.A.S., serving with the regiment in Malaya 1954-55.

In October 1955, he was transferred to the Trucial Oman Scouts and was killed in action in an ambush at Muti, Oman, on March 30, 1958.

He was buried in the American Mission Cemetery, Bahrain, but was subsequently disinterred and his body returned to the UK at the request of his family, which has its roots in Bath.

Halls' militaria specialist, Caroline Dennard, said the suitcase of medals, documents and photographs relating to the Chambers family, had been purchased by the Cheshire vendor at another auction which has not realised their importance.

Miss Dennard was also responsible for helping reunite a family with a collection of Great War postcards and photographs.

They belonged to brothers Acting Captain 'Basher' Hubert Poile Aggleton of the Royal Engineers (1887-1962) and Temporary Lieutenant Charles Walter Poile Aggleton of the Railway Traffic Officers, who died in 1957.

After tracing the family through the Aggleton website to the London region, Miss Dennard was delighted to see the collection return to their possession after a successful bid of £600.

A large Second World War RAF scramble bell with clapper, dated 1940, which had been helping a Shrewsbury pub landlord call time for the last 20 years, sold for £1,000.

The bell was used to warn British fighter pilots of incoming attacks by the Luftwaffe so that they could 'scramble' their waiting Hurricane or Spitfires.

A rare Great War photograph album containing more than 400 original photographs taken during the Gallipoli campaign in Egypt in 1915 sold for £800 while a collection of Great War medals awarded to Private E. A. Tolfrey, together Second World War medals other items made £580.

Eleven lots comprising First and Second World War bayonets, which had been collected by an Oswestry man over a number of years, sold for £865 while two 19th century Indian toradar matchlock guns sold for £460 and £370.

In the interiors auction, an English School portrait of Samuel Akroyd (1821-'42) sold for £750, four early 19th century gouache and watercolour silhouettes made £380 and an Edwardian mahogany extending oval dining table by Joseph Fitter found a new home for £440.

"The Great War commemorations this week definitely increased interest in the medal groups on offer and was a real talking point in the saleroom," said Miss Dennard. "We had interest in the militaria lots from across the UK and as far away as Australia."

She is now accepting entries for the company's next militaria auction on December 17.