An emotive Loos Officer Casualty 1914-1915 Star trio awarded to Captain H.B.S. Handford, ‘C’ Company, 8th Battalion, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment who having been educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge joined his unit as a Second Lieutenant on 2nd September 1914, being promoted Lieutenant on 2nd September 1914 and seeing service on the Western Front from February 1915. Promoted Captain on 26th April 1915 he was killed in action during the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt, near Vermelles on 14th October 1915 and having been killed leading his men into the attack. He was buried on the field where he fell and his grave subsequently being lost is now remembered on the Loos Memorial.
Group of 3: 1914-1915 Star; (LIEUT. H.B.S. HANDFORD. NOTTS. & DERBY. R.) British War Medal and Victory Medal; (CAPT H.B.S. HANDFORD.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Henry Basil Strutt Handford was the eldest son of Henry Handford of Elmfield, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, he was born on 15th February 1894 and educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he took a second class in the first part of the Law Tripos.
He had joined ‘C’ Company, 8th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters as Second Lieutenant on 2nd September 1914, being promoted Lieutenant on 2nd September 1914 and Captain on 26th April 1915.
Volunteering for foreign service after the outbreak of war in August 1914, leaving his law course unfinished, he would go to France in February 1915 and would be killed in action at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, near Vermelles on 14th October 1915 and would be buried on the field where he fell and is now remembered on the Loos Memorial to the missing. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission further notes him as the son of Major H. Handford, M.D. (Royal Army Medical Corps) and the Honourable Mrs H. Handford of Elmfield, Southwell, Nottinghamshire.
The Brigadier-General wrote ‘It is, indeed hard to lose two such boys. (his brother being killed the same day). The elder I have known now well for some years. He was a splendid lad and a first rate officer, always keen and hard-working, and doing his very best, and so cheerful even under depressing circumstances. He was most popular with all, and his loss is much felt and leaves a great blank in his battalion. The younger brother I hardly knew, but the Chaplain said to me the day before his death: ‘He is the best boy we have had since Hollins died,’ and this is very high praise in a battalion where there are so many splendid boys. They fell leading their men to the attack over the open, a death every soldier would be proud to die, and the trench, to gain which they have their lives, was won and held by their battalion and is still in our hands.’ And one of his Sergeants stated ‘He died like a Britisher; he is a very, very big loss to us, which can’t be replaced, as my loads would go anywhere with him, as they knew they were under a good officer. Also his younger brother, I was the first he saw joining the battalion, and he was not compelled to stop; but he said to me he was going to stop with his brother, and I saw them always together, and they were always good to their men.’
While at Rugby he was an active member of the Officer Training Corps and for two seasons played in the Rugby Football XC.
