Great War Western Front Territorial Force War Medal recipient’s casualty group awarded to Acting Corporal A.G. Ralph, Middlesex Regiment, Territorial Force. From Willesden and later Harrow and then Hendon, he saw active service with the 1st/7th Battalion, followed by the 1st/8th Battalion, the 16th (Service) Battalion (Public Schools) and ultimately the 18th (Service) Battalion (1st Public Works Pioneers). He discharged due to his wounds in February 1919, and as of 1939 was still listed as a war disabled pensioner.
Group of 3: British War Medal and Victory Medal; (7602 A.CPL. A.G. RALPH. MIDD’X R.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-1919; (7602 A.CPL. A.G. RALPH. MIDD’X. R.), mounted swing style as worn, the last mounted first.
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Arthur George Ralph was born on 13 September 1897 in Willesden, Middlesex, the son of Thomas Joseph Arthur Ralph and Selina Ann Yardley. A pre-war member of the Territorial Force, he had enlisted on 3 July 1914, and saw service during the war as a Private and ultimately Acting Corporal (No.1303 later No.7602 and then No.202927) with the Middlesex Regiment. He was a member of the 1st/7th Battalion, which originally saw service out on the Western Front from March 1915, though he clearly arrived after the advent of 1916 owing to his entitlement to the Territorial Force War Medal.
Ralph then transferred to the 1st/8th Battalion which formed part of the 167th Brigade in the 56th (London) Division, and then saw service with the 16th (Service) Battalion (Public Schools), a unit of the 86th Brigade in the 29th Division until it was disbanded in February 1918, after which he saw service with the 18th (Service) Battalion (1st Public Works Pioneers). He served on the Western Front throughout his period of active service, and was eventually discharged due to wounds on 28 February 1919, being awarded the Silver War Badge, No.B-159832, from which date he began claiming his pension for wounds, giving his address as that of his father who was a caretaker living in the Caretakers House, at the Council School on Chamberlayne Wood Road, Willesden.
Ralph got married to Hilda Victoria Heath in Brent on 18 April 1925. As of 1939 he was working as an electrician in Harrow where he was working for the Borough Supply Department, being noted also as a war disabled pensioner. He died in Hendon in September 1976.
