A Great War First Battle of Ypres officer casualty trio awarded to Lieutenant R. St.J. Willans, 3rd attached 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, a Boer War veteran who was re-gazetted upon the outbreak of the Great War. He would be killed in action on 9th November 1914 near Ypres after being buried by a shell, initially listed as missing he was later reported as being killed.
Group of 4: 1914 Star; (LIEUT. R. ST. J. WILLANS. NORTH’D FUS.) British War Medal and Victory Medal; (LIEUT R. ST. J. WILLANS.) Great War Memorial Plaque; (ROBERT ST. JOHN WILLANS) Mounted in a frame with glazing missing.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Robert St. John Willans, 3rd attached 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers was the only son of the late Colonel St. John Willans, and grandson of the late Robert Courage of Snowdenham, Bramley, Surrey. He was born on 8th September 1877, and after serving with the embodied Militia for four months, was gazetted to the Northumberland Fusiliers as 2nd Lieutenant in April 1900, being promoted Lieutenant in June 1901. He served in the South African War and was present at operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, earning a Queen’s South Africa Medal with three clasps and a King’s South Africa Medal. He retired from the Army in 1905, and on the outbreak of the Great War was re-gazetted to the 3rd Battalion of his old regiment, with the rank he held on retirement having previously been in Paris studying Art.
Willans was killed in action when he was buried by a shell on 9th November 1914 near Ypres. The other officers of his Regiment had all been killed or wounded, and he was first included among the ‘missing’, but has since been reported as killed.
Having no known grave Willans is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. He is remembered as the son of the late Col. St.G. Willans and Ethel D’Aragon Willans.
