WW1 Pair to Reverend Melhuish RAChD.

A scarce WW1 British War and Victory medal correctly named to Reverend John Melhuish of the Royal Army Chaplains Department.
John Melhuish was born 1876 in Devon. He was commissioned into the Army as Temporary Chaplain 4th Class in 1916 and the Chaplain Captain of the 117th Brigade in January 1917. The 117th Brigade held mostly men raised from Kitchener’s Army, composed primarily of recruits from the Midlands, London, and the south of England. They fought in the Battle of the Somme and the following year, at the Third Battle of Ypres. In May 1917 Captain Melhuish was hospitalised with Trench Fever.
Trench Fever was a disease transmitted by body lice with symptoms of a high fever, severe headache, pain on moving the eyeballs, soreness of the muscles of the legs, back and shin pain. While Trench Fever was rarely, if ever fatal, it was, nonetheless, a severe logistic problem for all armies that fought on the Western Front in WW-I. Infected soldiers were too sick to fight and, because the disease was apt to remiss and recur over a period of weeks, three months away from the front was the average for a sufferer.
Captain Melhuish was sent home for recuperation and in August 1917 took the post of Army Chaplain with the Royal Engineers Signal Depot, Hitchin, now Reverend. After the war, with the Kings appointment, Melhuish was made Curate of Saint Pauls Church in Forest Hill, London, where he remained for many years. Reverend Melhuish died on the 3rd of May 1939 at his home in Peckham Surrey, he was still a Clerk of the Saint Pauls Church. He was married to Rachel and had a daughter Olive and a Son John.
His medals come in excellent un worn condition and on pieces of original ribbon. Also included is a large amount of copied research, National Archives Service papers, medal index card and medal roll, Census and probate details.

Code: 29794