Medals: WWI Medal pair to Ernest Baron Bolam Born 25th June ...

Hammer

£800

Medals: WWI Medal pair to Ernest Baron Bolam Born 25th June 1886 - Assassinated April 23rd 1920 by I.R.A. in Ireland. He was originally listed as an Artist and later as a Photographer with a studio in Ealing Broadway and joined the Army at the start of the First World War. After initial training he failed a medical for combat duties and he was offered a position at headquarters behind the front line which he declined and he volunteered to join the Chinese Labour Corp. This was a volunteer non combat unit which was usually employed in hauling supplies and ammunition up to the front. He was promoted to Lieutenant and took command of 146 Company C.L. Corps. Included in the lot is his Kodak NO 2 FOLDING AUTOGRAPHIC BROWNIE CAMERA as manufactured from 1915 and a photograph (attached) of a tank which he took on The Western Front. Also attached is a letter addressed to Miss C.Bolam (his sister) stamped "Passed by Censor" and a post mark ARMY POST OFFICE. AP. 18 The letter ends from your loving brother Ern and give Ron (his brother) a kiss from me and a few pressed violets. The violets are still enclosed in the letter, picked in the field where he was at the time of writing. Also attached is a photograph of Uncle Ernest to my dear Phyl (my mother) from Uncle Ernest. The two medals included have always remained in the family and are misnamed and are E. J. Balam O.B. R.N.V.R, Ernest did not receive the medals until he had been demobbed for some time. On his discharge at the end of the war Ernest resumed his career as a photographer but found that there was not much call for photographers at the time. Apparently he saw an advertisement in London for volunteers to join The Black and Tans. The Black and Tans were mostly formed of ex soldiers after 1918, and taken to Ireland by the government to assist the Royal Irish Constabulary in their work. For a number of years the R.I.C. had been targeted by the I.R.B. and later the I. R. A. Uncle Ernest joined The Black and Tans and after initial training he was posted to Ireland. On his first day there, a couple of colleagues invited him to join them to go and see the town, they left the barracks and Ernest was shot in the back by the I.R.A. and killed, provenance via direct descent.