About the product

1914-15 Star

1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, Lieut G.A.G. Godley, A.S.C., who was mortally wounded and died on 26th March 1918. Medals period mounted on silk ribbons by Spink for…

Out of stock

SKU: J5730 Category:
Origin: United Kingdom
Extremely Fine

Description

1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, Lieut G.A.G. Godley, A.S.C., who was mortally wounded and died on 26th March 1918.

 

Medals period mounted on silk ribbons by Spink for display, the Victory Medal is an example of the rare 1st type with ‘chocolate’ finish.

 

Lieutenant Gerald Annesley George Godley was born during 1897 in Mitford, Norfolk, he was from a long line of Military Men, his Father was Major Harry Crewe Godley DSO, who earned his DSO during the Boer War at Enslin Railway Station defending the post with the Northamptonshire Regiment against a force of 900 Boers for nine hours.
His Grandfather was also Major Henry R.C. Godley, 28th Regiment who distinguished himself in the Crimean War earning the Order of the Medjidie.

 

He was educated at Cheltenham College and then passed into Sandhurst College, by the outbreak of the war he was barely 17, he took part in September 1914 in a Play of The Rose and the Ring as Countess Gruffanuff to raise money for the Prince of Wales Relief Fund Charity.
He appears to have been a fan of the theatre and took part in some plays as a young man, earlier taking part in a rendition of “Tilda’s New Hat” described in the newspapers as “The trumpery, pasty Emerson, as represented by Mr Gerald Godley, was not at all a bad specimen of the type the late Mr Henry Labouchere, M.P., would have had us believe were in his day turned out to pattern by the Y.M.C.A. There is more penetrating study of character an of ‘point of view’ in this tiny piece than in many pretentious things running into four acts.”

 

Upon turning 18 he was granted a Commission with the Army Service Corps, announced in the London Gazette of 16th April 1915.

 

He served in France from July 1915 until his death on 26th March 1918.
He was serving at the time with 15th Division Train, Army Service Corps, he was mortally wounded by a bomb, a newspaper obituary states it was “a bomb dropped by an English aeroplane flew by a German.”

 

His remains were buried in V.F.15, Duisans British Cemetery, Etrun, he was only 20 years old.