Bosleys Military Auctioneers
Lot 726
The Bodman Brothers Historic & Important Great War Archive of Uniform & Ephemera. This important time capsule of material is probably the most complete listing of Hats, Uniforms, Trench Maps, Note Books and Ephemera representing two brothers family service in World War One. They are the items of Second Lieutenant Charles Walter Bodman 15th Bn Durham Light Infantry, previously a Bristol Volunteer with the Gloucestershire Regiment and later Killed in Action, just weeks before the end of the war in August 1918 and those of his brother Private Christopher J. Bodman of the Machine Gun Corps. Contained in the original travelling trunk they have sat in for nearly a Century. Including: Uniforms of Second Lieutenant Charles Walter Bodman 15th Bn Durham Light Infantry. Heavy duty 1916 shoulder rank trench tunic with Divisional Badges. Cord material, complete with regimental collar badges and buttons. To the shoulder straps single cloth rank star. To each shoulder and to the rear neck a Battalion cloth badge of an inverted triangle with red thread embroidered DLI cap badge. Evidence of two wound badges having been worn on the left cuff. Some service and age wear, large moth hole under the right breast pocket and other moth damage, not effecting the overall appearance ... Officer’s Cuff Rank service dress tunic. This is a lightweight material example with rank Stars and lace to the cuff indicating Second Lieutenant. Also to the cuffs, two blue overseas chevrons and two bullion wound badges. Complete with DLI Collar badges and buttons. The interior with London Tailor’s label. VGC ... Officer’s Cap, complete with badge, but now with moth damage. ... Selection of Officers webbing and leather equipment. ... Large selection of hand written letters written from the front and sent home to his Mother. ... Memorial Bronze Plaque and Scroll “Charles Walter Bodman” Uniform of Private Christopher J Bodman Machine Gun Corps. WW1 Machine Gun Corps Other Rank’s Divisional Badged 1902 Pattern Trench Tunic. Complete with MGC brass collar badges and General Service buttons. To each shoulder strap MGC brass titles and to each shoulder a green inverted triangle Company Badges. The interior with WD issue stamps and the field dressing pocket has been opened. The stand and fall collar is tailored with the correct two pleats. Gloucestershire Regiment 1902 “Stiff” Pattern Cap. A regulation example, with small peak, retaining both regimental cap and back badges. The interior with leather sweatband and with stencilled name to the lining. Some storage wear Two 1917 pattern Trench Caps, one with badges for the Gloucestershire Regiment the other MGC. WW1 Machine Gun Corps “Cor Blimey” Officer’s Trench Cap. This example with tailor’s details of J & G Moss of Exeter. GC. WW1 Trench Foul Weather Cap Cover. Complete with ties, slight wear. New Bristol Battalion Gloucestershire Regt. Badge. This celluloid example remains bright with a little mottling. Complete with pin. ... Accompanied by two Circa 1914 photographic postcards showing the 12th Bn Gym group and the 12th at bayonet practice. Quantity of 1908 Pattern webbing equipment, this includes a very rare 1st Pattern Haversack Sidebag. with press stud to the front and additional strap and buckle fitted to the rear, to accommodate the 1st pattern water bottle carrier . The bag is complete with a brace cross strap for use. The bag has not been blancoed and is in original dusty condition. ... Canadian pattern waterbottle and carrier ... Examples of Large Packs (WW1 Dated) Issue pattern woollen scarf, this stencilled with Gloucestershire Regimental Number. Trench Maps ... Training Notes ... Field Message Pads etc Battlefield German “Pickups”. An interesting collection including “Pork Pie” Hat ... Prussian Picklehaulbe Other Ranks plate ... Soldiers Dog Tags .... Photographs ... Shrapnel ... Cloth Shoulder Straps etc. This is a very large quantity of items and here listed is only a selection. If possible Viewing is very strongly recommended. Charles and his brother Christopher were born in the 1890’s and lived in the town of Marshfield, Gloucestershire, their parents ran the local shop “Bodman, Draper and Grocer”. At the outbreak of the Great War Charles at the age of 24 Volunteered joining the Gloucestershire Regiment and became one of the Bristol Volunteers, serving with the 12th Bn. After training he embarked for France with the Regiment landing on the 21st November 1915. During his time in France he was wounded on two occasions and in 1917 was selected for a Commission, which he was duly granted on the 25th September 1917, into the Durham Light Infantry. As a newly minted Second Lieutenant he returned to France to serve with the 15th Bn DLI, the ephemera in the trunk contains Trench Maps showing German positions and message pads he would have used at this time, plus a nominal Roll of men of his Company. He was Killed in Action on the 24th August 1918 whilst with the 15th Bn and has no known grave. His brother Christopher was three years younger and volunteered his services to the Machine Gun Corps, he served in France from 1917. While the two brothers fought in France, their parents continued to run the family shop, their father Walter died in 1917 and his widow Sarah continued the business. Like so many families the loss of a loved one fighting for King and Country is unbearable, it is only when you see how a despairing mother as in this case, kept every single fragment of her lost son’s life you begin to understand the personal cost of that telegram “Killed in Action”. Christopher survived the war and returned to Marshfield, and placed his tunic in the trunk, with his brothers and closed the lid. Alongside his Mother he returned to the counter of Bodman, Draper and Grocer and helped run the family shop until her death in the 1930’s. On inheriting the business, he pulled down the blinds, bolted the door and closed the shop, preserved as it was the day it closed. The shop would lay dormant through another World War until Christopher’s death in 1983, his last will and testament stating that the family shop must be sold by Public Auction on the premisses. The vendor remembered the shop in the town as a boy, always closed always a mystery. When the Archive went under the hammer he purchased it and it has laid as complete in his care for the last 32 years.
