The poignant Battle of the Marne casualty Great War trio to 2nd Lieutenant (later Captain) the

The poignant Battle of the Marne casualty Great War trio to 2nd Lieutenant (later Captain) the Honourable Gerard Philip Montague Napier Sturt, Coldstream Guards: 1914 Star with 5th Aug.-22nd Nov. 1914 Bar (2. LIEUT: HON: G. P. M. N. STURT. C. GDS:), British War Medal 1914-20 and Victory Medal (2. LIEUT. HON. G. P. M. N. STURT.), nearly extremely fine, [3]; mounted for display and in a later Spink case with ivorine label 'CAPTAIN THE HONOURABLE G. P. M. N. STURT COLDSTREAM GUARDS 1893-1918'.

By descent

Gerard Philip Montague Napier Sturt was born on the 19th of April 1893, at Alington House, South Audley Street, London; the eldest son of Sir Humphrey Napier Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington, KCVO (see lot 42) and the great nephew of Charles Napier Sturt, Grenadier Guards (see lot 68). He was educated at Eton College, where he was a member of the O.T.C., between 1906 and 1910, and upon leaving he applied for a place at the Royal Military Academy. He was commissioned in the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards in 1911.

Upon the outbreak of the First World War the Battalion was assigned to the British Expeditionary Force, and marched out of Blenheim Barracks on the night of the 12th-13th of August 1914, with Sturt in 4 Company. They sailed on the Dunvegan Castle, disembarking in Le Havre early on the 14th. Less than one month later, on the 6th of September, Sturt's company formed part of the advanced guard of the 1st (Guards) Division of the B. E. F. in the Allied counterattack against the Germans that resulted in what was later known as the 'Miracle of the Marne'. Sturt was severely wounded - one of around 340 casualties in his battalion - being struck in the spine by a ball from a shrapnel shell.

Though he was later "able to shuffle a few yards" wearing special splints and using crutches, Sturt never recovered the use of his legs. He had fought in the battle that turned the tide of the German advance in 1914 but he lived out the rest of the war as an invalid in England, having been evacuated from St Nazaire on the 11th of September 1914. He was promoted to Captain in October 1915, but in March 1916 his request to be assigned to some administrative work was declined. He finally succumbed to his wound on the 11th of November 1918, the very day on which the armistice was signed.