An Historically Important, 1914 Star & Bar
(Old Contemptible)
“OPERATION MICHAEL”, CASUALTY TRIO.
(Mint with Registered Envelope, Boxes, & Original Ribbons).
5350. Pte G.H. LAKE, 6th Dragoon Guards.
(Late 3rd Dragoons & Royal Welsh Fusiliers).
KILLED IN ACTION,
23rd MARCH 1918.
(Ham, France),








[THE MEDALS]
1914 Star with Original Aug- Nov Clasp
5350 Pte. G.H. LAKE. 6/D.GDS.
War & Victory Medals.
5350 Pte. G.H. LAKE. 6/D.GDS.

[BIOGRAPHY] 19th February 1895 - 23rd March 1918 (Age 23)
George Herbert Lake was born in Exeter, Devon on 19th February 1895 the first son of the late Colour Sgt Alfred George Lake, late 2nd Devonshire Rgt. and Hanna Lake.

George’s Father, Alfred George Lake, served as:
2411 & 3108 Colour Sergt (Sergt Instrutor) A.G. Lake, Devonshire Regt.

Father, Alfred G. Lake was entitled to:
India General Service Medal [Burma 1889-92]
Q.S.A. [Laings Nek]-[Transvaal]-[Orange Free State]-[Cape Colony].

From Moretonhampstead (Exeter)

DO YOU HAVE DAD’s MEDALS? …If so, please call us.

George Lake was educated at the Moretonhampstead Council School. He had apparently first joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (M.I.C. confirms) but then re-enlisted into 3rd Dragoon Guards in 1910 at age 15. He gained a 2nd Class Army Educational Certificate (Maths & English Composition) on 12th June 1911 with 3rd Dragoon Gurads. Interestingly, the certificate is headed “E.R.” for Edward VII, who actually died earlier on 6 May 1910, but is correct as George V was not crowed as King until 22nd June 1911.

George subsequently continued his training for a year in South Africa during 1912, with a return to UK in 1913 at age 18.

[DECLARATION OF WAR] 4th August 1914.
At the declaration of war on 4th August 1914, he and his new unit, 6th Dragoons Guards, being a regular army unit were prepared for immediate war service deployment. They arrived in France with the very early units of the B.E.F. “The Old Contemptibles” on 16th August 1914. This was just 12 days after the declaration and George was then 19 years of age.

His entire Great War service was with 6th Dragoon Guards and his medals are named as such.

The 6th Dragoons had a very distinguished operational history during WW1 and took part in many of the major battles of the war.
These included:
The Battle of Mons in August 1914,
The First Battle of the Marne in September 1914,
The First Battle of Ypres in October 1914
The Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915
*Battle of Festubert.
(*George Lake was Wounded at Festubert*)

On May 21, 1915, the British army attacked the German line at "K. 5" during the Battle of Festubert, which was part of the Second Battle of Artois.
George Lake was wounded during this battle and was also accidentally wounded on two further occasions during 1915.

He went on to see further action at:
The Battle of the Somme in mid-Autumn 1916,
The Battle of Arras in April 1917
The Battle of Cambrai in November 1917.
*The German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, 21st March 1918.

*(Pte Lake went into action on the 1st day of Operation Michael as a dismounted cavalryman and two days later on 23rd March was first wounded by shellfire and then killed instantly by another exploding enemy shell while defending the British front line at Ham, France.)

[AN OBITUARY by HIS COMMANDING OFFICER]
In an obituary notice, his commanding officer wrote:
“He went up with a dismounted party, which left the regiment on the First Day of the Boche Offensive. (*21st April 1918, Operation Michael*) and behaved very gallantly during the retreat. He was wounded by a shell, and after being bound up, was himself helping to bandage another wounded man, when a shell burst just by, and killed him instantly. I am very sorry to lose him from the troop”

About 50 other cavalrymen from 3rd Dragoons (with which unit George originally served) were urgently brought into service on 23rd to take part in what was to be the very last “mass cavalry charge” by the British army in France.

On 23 March 1918, a mounted force of 500 Canadian and British cavalrymen was urgently improvised to counter-attack the advanced enemy positions and regain broken infantry lines on the third day of Operation Michael.

The exhausted men of the 20th and 36th Divisions were however in a very poor state when the enemy broke the line at HAM, on the 23rd MARCH 1918.

They fell back in good order, forming a succession of firing lines every 500 yards or so, but the pressure was so great, with the enemy continually throwing in fresh troops, that the situation became most serious. Villages were in flames and roads blocked by transport, troops, walking-wounded, and refugees; while the open country was full of field-artillery batteries, moving into action. The clouds of dust raised both by the road traffic and the guns was thickened by a dense pall of black smoke caused by exploding ammunition dumps. The roar of guns and mortars, and the crack and whine of small-arms fire never ceased for a moment.

.............The 6th Cavalry Brigade mounted detachment, which consisted of fifty men apiece from the 3rd Dragoon Guards, l0th Royal Hussars, and Royals, and was commanded by Major Watkin Williams of the l0th, was ordered at about 2 p.m. on the 24th March to make a mounted attack on some enemy infantry and machine-guns, who were in action in front of two copses on the rising ground just west of Villeselve. The detachment, which was formed into three regimental troops, of which that of the 3rd Dragoon Guards was led by Lieutenant A. B. P. L. Vincent, moved off immediately along the road to Villeselve with the 3rd Dragoon Guards troop leading.

The medals are all absolutely “mint state” and come with their original named boxes and mint ribbons.

George Lake, at age 19, was one of those very rare 1914 Star & Bar soldiers who arrived in France in August 1914 with the B.E.F. and who took part in and amazingly survived most of the major battles of the Great War, only to sadly lose his life in the latter stages of the conflict in 1918. The vast majority of the original 1914 men of the B.E.F. became casualties before the end of 1916.

When he was lost on the battlefield he was only 23 years old, and like tens of thousands of our dead and missing, he has no known grave. Had his officer not personally witnessed his final moments, he would, like so many others have become just another sad statistic.

5350, Pte George Herbert Lake is Commemorated with Eternal Honour on Panel 2 of the POZIERES MEMORIAL, France.












This is a Truly Rare, 1914 Star & Bar Trio to an early entrant Dragoon cavalryman serving with the British Expeditionary Force.

An “Old Contemptible” Casualty with pre-war service in South Africa.

Just try to find another cavalry casualty group like this, with a full Biography, Obituary and a Photograph, even the Original Registered Envelope ……Practically Impossible. !!




In “Mint State” condition…and with all the original ribbons & boxes!

£1250