Picture courtesy of DNW
DSO GV, silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, in its R & S. Garrard & Co case of issue, the inner silk lining with ink inscription, ‘With love to my wife 1914’;
QSA (4) South Africa 1901, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (6587 Pte. S. J. Steward, Vol. Coy. Suffolk Regt.) clasp carriage block loose on ribbon and mounted in order listed;
1914 Star, with clasp (Capt: S. J. Steward. R.A.M.C.);
BWM and VM with MID oak leaves (Major S. J. Steward.)
DSO LG 1 December 1914:
‘Went with a party of stretcher-bearers across ground swept by rifle and shell fire to Langemark village, and removed 11 wounded men.’
The War Diary of No. 1 Field Ambulance for 25 November 1914 states: ‘Captain Steward on his return from Langemarck stated he collected eleven wounded of the Welch Regt. there, east of the village - just to the right of his position, he found 22 bodies in a heap, all dead - the position was too exposed, just behind the trenches, to remove identity discs as sniping and shell fire was going on, but a Corporal Maxwell of the Regt. who (with Ptes. Evans & Ruderick) had stood by in the village for medical aid) recognised some of the bodies & identified them. The wounded were carried by the six stretcher squads sent to the village where they were dressed in a cottage & removed then by 3 ambulance wagons I had sent out to follow Capt. Steward as far as the village of Langemarck.’
Captain Steward was decorated by the King in person on 3 December 1914, on the occasion of H.M.’s visit to the Expeditionary Force.
MID LG 17 February 1915 (Field-Marshal French’s despatch of 20 November 1914).
Sidney John Steward was born at Worcester in 1879, son of John A. Steward, JP He was educated at Cathedral King’s School, Worcester; Downing College, Cambridge, and St Thomas’s Hospital, London.
Served as a combatant in the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, in the South African War, 1899-1901.
He served in the European War from 17 August 1914, was present at the retreat from Mons; advance on the Marne and Aisne; Ypres, 1914; Loos, 1915 (with No. 1 Field Ambulance, 1 Division until March, 1916); Medical Officer, No. 5 Infantry Base Depôt, Rouen; Senior Medical Officer, Paris (March, 1917); Second-in-Command, 24th Field Ambulance (8th Division) (October, 1917), and with this unit (Acting Major, January 1918) at Villers Bretonneux, March, 1918, and retreat to Marne, 1918; O.C., 31st Motor Ambulance Convoy (June, 1918), and with this unit (8th Corps) in advance during October, 1918, reaching Mons on Armistice Day, 1918.