Description
Military Cross, GV, 1914-15 Star Trio, Major R.W. Kemp, Machine Gun Corps.
A particularly interesting Gallantry group to a young man who rose from Private up to Major through the war. He would later become Lieutenant Colonel and during WW2, was the Colonel of the 11th City of Bristol Battalion, Gloucestershire Home Guard.
In civilian life he was a lifelong Jeweller and resident of Bristol, the son of Walter Wickenden Kemp of W.W. Kemp and Son, Jewellers of Bristol founded in 1881 and passed on to his son Reginald in 1932.
Military Cross announced in the Supplement to the London Gazette, 18th March 1918:
Temporary 2nd Lieutenant Reginald Walter Kemp, M.G. Corps, the citation reads:
“For Conspicuous Gallantry and devotion to duty in an attack.
He had to advance through a heavy enemy barrage in order to engage his targets, but by his skill and judgement he accomplished this without casualties. The gun positions were heavily shelled, but by his coolness and example he inspired his men to keep their guns firing.
It was largely due to his quick grasp of the situation that the enemy counter attacks were broken up.”
Provenance, Spink Auction 15002, Lot 98, 2015.
Medals are swing mounted on old ribbons, housed in a lovely bespoke leather case, which amazingly was made to fit the medals in exactly as they are mounted with the star overlapping, the front reads in gold lettering “Major R.W. Kemp MACHINE GUN CORPS”. He was a Jeweller so seems to have had it made probably in his own shop.
Military Cross contemporarily engraved on reverse: “Lieut R.W. Kemp. Machine Gun Corps. St Julien Ypres. Sepr 1917”
1914-15 Star officially impressed: “6358 Pte R.W. Kemp. R. Fus:”
WW1 Pair officially impressed: “MAJOR R.W. KEMP.”
Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Walter Kemp, M.C., was born in Bristol during April 1892.
He grew up in Bristol, the son of Walter Wickenden Kemp and Ellen Amelia (Morgan). His father ran W.W. Kemp & Co, a Bristol Jeweller established in 1881 and still going to this day.
He first enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers, serving with the 19th Battalion on the Western Front from 14th November 1915.
He was soon afterwards Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant joining the Machine Gun Corps on 26th May 1916.
The next year he was awarded the Military Cross for Gallantry in at attack at St Julien, Ypres in September 1917.
He was promoted to full Lieutenant on 26th March 1918, becoming a Major on 5th April 1919.
On 18th April 1921, he joined the Stephen Lodge in Bristol, of the United Grand Lodge of England Freemasons.
Before WW2, in 1939 he was working as a Managing Director of a Retail Jeweller in Bristol.
He was officially promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 8th December 1942.
Serving at home during the Second World War, he was the Colonel of the 11th (City of Bristol) Battalion, Gloucestershire Home Guard.
He later died in Weston Super Mare, Somerset, during 1973.
He was a longtime Jeweller in Bristol, he spent the majority of his life in the county.
In 1924, he was the Honorary Treasurer of the West of England Watch, Clock Makers and Jewellers’ Association, of which he later became President.
He was later President of the Bristol and District Jewellers Association by 1940.
Western Daily News 10th May 1940, states that he was helping organise a Red Cross Benefit Sale to aid the war effort, and that any donations would be auctioned at Christies.
