WW1 medal pair – British War Medal & Victory Medal – awarded to ARTHUR SANT of the Cheshire Regiment, later the Labour Corps – Wounded during the Battle of the Somme 1916

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0034 

WW1 medal pair – British War Medal & Victory Medal – awarded to ARTHUR SANT of the Cheshire Regiment, later the Labour Corps – Wounded during the Battle of the Somme 1916 

You are looking at a WW1 pair of medals, British War Medal and Victory Medal, awarded to Private ARTHUR SANT of the Cheshire Regiment, later the Labour Corps, along with the soldier’s Cheshire Regiment cap badge. 

The medals are inscribed ‘35086 PTE. A.SANT. CHES.R.’

There are very few military records relating to ARTHUR SANT, and nothing to tell us which battalion of the Cheshire Regiment he served with.

ARTHUR appears in a daily report of missing, dead and wounded dated the 8^th of September 1916, where he is described as ‘wounded’, and he is also recorded as such in the Liverpool Post and Mercury newspaper that was published that same date, and again, he is described as ‘wounded’ in the relevant section and his home address provided as Crewe.

Of those members of the Cheshire Regiment who appear alongside ARTHUR in the ‘wounded’ section, 8 x men in total, from the available records, 6 x have been identified as being members of, or at least connected with the 11^th (Service) Battalion, and there is a further listing for an 11^th Battalion soldier who was killed, and the events that led to the death and the injuries took place over the 29^th, 30^th and 31^st of July 1916, although it must be borne in mind that only 3 x dates can be established within the available records.

From the available evidence, it is likely ARTHUR SANT was also a member of the 11^th (Service) Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment, and there is a report in the Crewe Guardian newspaper dated the 11^th of August 1916, that describes who he is and how he was injured.

The report describes how 23 year old ARTHUR SANT, son of Police Sergeant J H SANT of Bowden Police Station, had enlisted into the army in March 1916, went to France in July, and on the 30^th of July, within weeks it appears of arriving at the front line, whilst on stretcher-bearing duty, was shot in the left hand and was now hospitalised in France.

The newspaper report supports the suggestion that ARTHUR was a member of the 11^th (Service) Battalion, who, at the time, were involved in the Battle of the Somme, operating out of newly captured German trenches in the area close to Ovillers-la-Boiselle, and there is a famous photograph of members of A Coy the 11^th Battalion, showing them occupying a German trench in the area, and more to the point, showing you the conditions soldiers were living and operating in.  

Having returned to the England, ARTHUR was eventually transferred to the Labour Corps, and he was based out of the 15^th Western Command Labour Centre, that was located in Chester and handled those soldiers who were from the north-west area.

ARTHUR, the son of JOHN HERBERT and SARAH ANNE SANT, was born on the 17^th of July 1792 and baptised in the Parish of Bowden in Cheshire on the 7^th of August that same year, and in 1921, he was living with his wife at 17 Lunt Avenue in Crewe, and he was a crockery porter by profession, working for the London and North Western Railway Company.

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during my research into this medal will be provided.