THE VICTORIA CROSS AND CAMPAIGN MEDALS AWARDED TO MAJOR GENERAL ERNEST ALEXANDER, ROYAL ARTILLERY, HAVE BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION BY DIX NOONAN WEBB
25 February 1999


( select to enlarge )		 Medal entitlement of Major General Ernest Alexander,
119th Battery, Royal Artillery

  • Victoria Cross
  • Companion, Order of the Bath ( CB )
  • Companion, Order of St Michael & St George ( CMG )
  • 1914 Star + clasp: "5th Aug-22nd Nov 1914"
  • British War Medal ( 1914-20 )
  • Victory Medal + MiD Oakleaf ( 1914-19 )
  • King Edward VII Coronation Medal ( 1902 )
  • Knight, Military Order of Savoy ( Italy )
  • Grand Officer, Order of Avis ( Portugal )
  • Croix de Guerre ( France )

The Victoria Cross and campaign medals awarded to Major General Ernest Alexander, Royal Artillery, have been sold at auction by Dix Noonan Webb. The sale realised a hammer price of £80,000. The Ernest Alexander Victoria Cross group was purchased by the Michael Ashcroft Trust, the holding institution for the Lord Ashcroft VC Collection and is on display in the Imperial War Museum's Lord Ashcroft Gallery.

For the award of the Victoria Cross

[ London Gazette, 18 February 1915 ], Elouges, Belgium, 24 August 1914, Major Ernest Wright Alexander, 119th Battery, Royal Artillery.

For conspicuous bravery and great ability at Elouges on the 24th August 1914, when the flank guard was attacked by a German corps, in handling his battery against overwhelming odds with such conspicuous success that all his guns were saved, notwithstanding that they had to be withdrawn by hand by himself and three other men. This enabled the retirement of the 5th Division to be carried out without serious loss.

Subsequently Lieutenant Colonel Alexander ( then Major ) rescued a wounded man under a heavy fire, with the greatest gallantry and devotion to duty.

Ernest Alexander was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on the 12th July 1915

Ernest Alexander died on the 23rd August 1943, aged 63, following an operation in Kingsbridge Hospital, Devonshire. He was later cremated in the Putney Vale Crematorium, South West London.

Acquisitions

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Iain Stewart, 12 May 2012