AN UNUSUAL "FATHER & SON"
CRIMEA & Turkish Crimea Pair,1st Coldstream Guards
&
A GREAT WAR "LOOS" MILITARY MEDAL & 1915 Trio,
141st Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C, Defence Medal & Met' Police Coronation 1911, Family group of eight. From Wyndham, Norfolk.

To:
(Father) Sgt Thomas Minns, 1st Coldstream Guards &
(Son). Sgt Charles Minns, MM, Royal Army Medical Corps.

A remarkable family grouping from the MINNS family spanning three wars and the 85 years 1854 to 1939.

Unusually we have family photographs of both men, with the picture of ex-Crimean Sergeant Thomas MINNS being a very rare early survivor.

Here we see a picture of the white bearded Thomas MINNS in old age wearing his Sunday best suite sitting at the back door of his home.


THE FATHER,
Thomas Minns.
[THE CRIMEA MEDALS]

CRIMEA MEDAL: "Inkermann" "Sebastopol"
Privately Engraved.


3658 Sgt Thomas Minns. 1st Bn Cm Gds.


(Some contact loss to last digit '8' of service number & to unit abbreviations, but fully readable) VF, with contact marks, original & uncleaned. On Original Ribbon.

TURKISH CRIMEA MEDAL. Sardinian Issue, La Crimea.
3658 CM GDS.Depot Impressed in small block capitals.
VF+ & uncleaned. Original Ribbon.

*Thomas Minns was born in Wyndham, Norfolk in 1832 and served in the Crimean war along side his older brother Reuben Minns also of the 1st Coldstream guards. Both men were based at Wellington Barracks, Westminster. On the 1851 census Reuben is 20 and Thomas is 19. Therefore, Thomas was aged 22 when he embarked for the Crimea in 1854. He was still serving in the army and is seen in the 1881 census at Chelsea as 'Sgt in Charge of Range' age 49. His Census Address was: "No.1 Hut" and he was living there with wife Anne, 49, & Ellen a daughter age 3. It is rather remarkable by today's standards that Anne was still having children at the age of 54 when in 1886 she bore Charles MINNS.

Clearly Thomas served for over 30 years in the army but there is no record of his ever receiving an LSGC .....obviously some of his committed crimes were discovered !!

(Elder brother Reuben MINNS was entitled to a Crimea with bars Sebastopol & Balaclava )

THE SON, Charles Minns
[GREAT WAR & METROPOLITAN POLICE MEDALS]

MILITARY MEDAL:
57957. SGT C. MINNS. R.A.M.C.
STAR: 57957. Cpl C. MINNS. R.A.M.C.
PAIR: 57957. Sgt C. MINNS. R.A.M.C.


DEFENCE MEDAL: Unnamed as issued. (Met' Police Reserve)
MET' POLICE CORONATION MEDAL 1911. P.C. C. MINNS

All medals EF on original ribbon.

Charles Minns was born in 1886 and entered the metropolitan police in about 1905 aged 19. He was present and on duty at the coronation of King George V in 1911. At the start of WW1 in 1914 he was aged 28.



He is seen arriving in France with 141st field ambulance R.A.M.C. on 11th August 1915.





[MILITARY MEDAL, Battle of Loos]
London Gazette. 14th September 1916
This gazette lists retrospective awards made from August 1914 up until June 1916. From the nature of this gazette it is clear that Charles won his medal for acts of gallantry which included his bravery at The Battle of Loos during the famous attack on the Hohenzollern redoubt of 13-19 October 1915 and for subsequent acts of gallantry. As Charles entered France in August 1915 as a Corporal and he is shown as Sergeant on his MM we can fairly safely assume that he was promoted & decorated in early 1916 for constantly recovering casualties under the withering enemy machine gun fire during the many attacks in which he took part from the time of his arrival in France.

Indeed, when looking at the Christian religious card which came with the group which shows an RAMC soldier rescuing a wounded man under the watching auspice of Christ "The White Comrade" (actually painted in 1915 by George Hillyard Swinstead) it's a pretty safe bet that due to his own memories of the Battle of Loos this scene struck a very personal cord with Charles Minns



The final British assault on 13 October had failed and the result was 3,643 casualties, with most of these men being shot down in the first few minutes. The official history of the war suggested that "The fighting on the 13th–14th October had not improved the general situation in any way and had brought nothing but useless slaughter of infantry".

Upon demobilisation, Charles rejoined the metropolitan police in 1919 age 33.

Picture of '4817' P.C. Charles Minns (Shown in Metropolitan Police uniform) Probably taken in about 1921 at age 35 at the time of issue of his Great War medals. Charles was still serving as a Metropolitan Police reserve police constable No.138 (No.4 District "P"- Camberwell Division Met' Police) at the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 and is also entitled to the Defence Medal.

In 1927 Charles MINNS was left £1385.00 in probate by a cousin Charles MINNS

An Excellent & Rare Family "Double" Assembly.



NEW TO THE MARKET & NEVER PREVIOUSLY OFFERED.

£1650.
Enquiries Welcome: 01342-870926.