Orders, Decorations & Medals - Other Properties - Aus

Lot 3715    SESSION 13 (2.30PM THURSDAY 2ND APRIL)    Orders, Decorations & Medals - Other Properties - Aust.

Estimate $280
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $320

PAIR: British War Medal 1914-18; Victory Medal 1914-19. 7933 Dvr. L.M.Allen. 6 F.A.B. A.I.F. Both medals impressed. Contact marks, otherwise fine.

A 1914-15 Star was issued on 10 June 1921 for Dvr L.M.Allen but it was issued in error and then returned on 10 May 1923.

Leslie Max Allen, bootmaker, age 24, born at Fairfield, Vic; Enl.31Jul1915 at Melbourne, Vic; to Driver 03Oct1915; Emb.25Nov1915; to hospital with influenza 20May1916; TOS 2 DAC 04Sep1916; to 6 FAB 17Feb1917; to American Women's War Hospital, Paignton, England with contusion scalp (accidentally kicked in head and unconscious for some hours) 01Oct1917; to hospital with VD (contracted at Reading, England) 07Aug1918; RTA 27Apr1919; Died 10Aug1919 prior to discharge as a result of injuries received from a shooting accident at Wandin; Buried with full military honours at Melbourne General Cemetery on 12Aug1918.

A report of the death of Leslie Allen in The Age (Melbourne) on Tuesday 12 August 1919 reads as follows. 'The death of Leslie Max Allen, aged 28 years, a returned soldier, who was shot with a pea rifle at North Wandin last Sunday, has been reported to the Coroner. Allen, who had put in four years on active service, at Gallipoli (see footnote) and in France, had upon his discharge (not yet discharged according to letter dated 15 October 1919 in his Service File and widow issued with Memorial Plaque) decided to select land. For this purpose he went with his father to North Wandin. On Sunday he left the house where he was staying to shoot rabbits, and took a pea rifle with him. As he did not return, a search was made for him, and he was found lying beside a fence with a wound on the left breast. The pea rifle lay on the other side in a position that indicated its discharge while being pulled through. The injured man was not dead, but died on the way to Caulfield Military Hospital.
(Note: Dvr L.M.Allen did not serve at Gallipoli. He embarked from Australia on 25 November 1915 and disembarked at Suez on 21 December 1915. The evacuation of troops from Gallipoli had already begun on 15 December 1915.)
Subsequently, a report in the Weekly Times (Melbourne) on Saturday 30 August 1919 reads as follows. 'FATAL GUNSHOT WOUND - SUICIDAL IMPULSE POSSIBLE. In giving evidence at the Morgue this week, Mr Edward Allen's theory of the death of his son, Leslie Max Allen (28) a returned soldier, was that in getting through a wire fence at Wandin North on August 10, his had either slipped or become entangled and accidentally discharged his rifle. Medical evidence showed that the singlet, but not the shirt or tunic, had been pierced.

Dr R. H. Cole, the Coroner, returned a finding that Allen died from the effects of a gunshot wound self-inflicted, but that there was no evidence to show how the wound came to be self-inflicted. It appeared from evidence that Allen had got up early with the declared intention of shooting rabbits. Dr Cole remarked that the fact of the shot having missed the tunic and shirt of the dead man, and having passed through the singlet, made it look like a case of suicide. He added that there could be little doubt that the shock and strain of service at the front had a tendency to arouse the suicidal impulse among some of the returned men.

With one page of research.