Medals from the Collection of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Part 7

1914-15 Star (3) (Capt. P. D. Doyne. Oxf & Bucks. L.I.; Lieut. F. A. Durno-Steele Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.; 2. Lieut. A. W. Wood, Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.) very fine (3) £120-£160 --- Philip Denys Doyne was born at Horningsham, Wiltshire, in 1892 the son of the Rev. Philip Doyne, and was educated at Keble College, Oxford, where he was a member of the Oxford University Officer Training Corps. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and served with the 1st/4th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 29 March 1915. On 28 December 1915 the battalion was in the front line near Courcelles and had relieved the 7th Worcesters in the trenches. The Battalion War Diary records that at 10 p.m. Doyne and one man, who had gone out to inspect the wire, were reported missing. The man returned, but reported that he had missed Doyne. Another patrol, under Captain Jones, immediately went out, and returned some two hours later with the officer’s body, which they found in a shell-hole. He had evidently been killed (shot through the head) by a bullet from a German machine-gun, which had opened fire on the spot where he was found. He is buried in Hebuterne Military Cemetery, France. Sold with an Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry gilt cap badge, converted to a pin badge, and a photographic image of the recipient. Frederick Arthur Durno-Steele (né Stahlschmidt) was born at Streatham, London, in 1892, and following the outbreak of the Great War joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 24 October 1914, and served with the 7th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 21 September 1915, before proceeding to Salonika. He was appointed an Acting Captain whilst commanding a Company on 26 April 1917, and was killed in action in Salonika on 9 May 1917. A contemporary account of his death states that despite being ‘twice or thrice wounded and had a leg shattered’, Captain Durno-Steele ‘sat on the enemy's parapet and threw bombs until he fell back dead’. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Doiran Memorial, Greece. For his services in Salonika he was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 28 November 1917). Sold with a photographic image of the recipient. Almeric Watkins Wood was born at Kurseong Parsonage, Bengal in 1891, the son of the Rev. Richard Somerville Wood, Chaplain to the Bengal Establishment, and was educated at Merton College, Oxford. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, he served during the Great War attached to the 5th Battalion on the Western Front from July 1915, and was mortally wounded at Ypres on 25 September 1915, dying the following day at Poperinghe. His Adjutant, Captain B. S. Paget, wrote: ‘We attacked at dawn that day [25th Sept.], but he was hit by a shell, and his leg smashed while directing a deployment of his platoon from the trenches into the open prior to the attack. He was brought into the dressing station, where I saw him, he was quite conscious at the time and not in great pain. Later he became unconscious... A medical officer saw him and did all he could; he was sent back almost at once in a motor ambulance to the hospital, but died there without regaining consciousness at 4.30 am. yesterday morning.’ Wood is buried at Poperinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium, and is included in the De Ruvigny Roll of Honour. Sold with a photographic image of the recipient.