British War Medal 1914-1919 awarded to Private E. Cable, 2nd Battalion, East Surrey Regiment who having served on the Western Front from 19th January 1915 would die of dysentery on 13th March 1915 at No. 14 Stationary Hospital in Wimereux. He would be buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery. In 2014 Cable’s case was studied in the Lancet where it states that the sample of the bacteria taken from him at the time of his case is now the oldest live strain still available to study.
British War Medal 1914-1919; (9108 PTE. E. CABLE. E. SURR. R.)
Condition: Good Very Fine
Ernest Cable saw service as a Private (No. 9108) with the 2nd Battalion, East Surrey Regiment on the Western Front from 19th January 1915. Cable died from Dysentery on 13th March 1915 at No.14 Stationary Hospital in Wimereux.
Cable may have been the first British person infected on the western front with the strain of Shigella Flexneri bacteria that led to his death, the sample taken from him by W. Broughton-Alcock is now believed to the oldest live strain still available today (this noted in a Lancet Medical Journal dated 2014.)
