A First War Pair to the 6th Battalion; East Lancashire Regiment; Basra Memorial

1914-15 Star (11730 Cpl J. PRIOR. E. LAN: R.); and Victory Medal (11730 CPL. J. PRIOR. E. LAN. R.). Naming is officially impressed. Un-mounted, original ribbon on the Star, oxidation spots on the VM, residue in the recessed ares of the Star from cleaning, contact marks, very fine. Footnote: Corporal James Prior, 6th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment died on April 5, 1916 and is remembered with honour on the Basra Memorial, Panel 19. The Basra Memorial commemorates more than 40,500 members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921 and whose graves are not known. The memorial was designed by Edward Warren and unveiled by Sir Gilbert Clayton on March 27, 1929. Until 1997, the Basra Memorial was located on the main quay of the naval dockyard at Maqil, on the west bank of the Shatt-al-Arab, about eight kilometres north of Basra. Due to the sensitivity of the site, the Memorial was moved by presidential decree. The move, carried out by the authorities in Iraq, involved a considerable amount of manpower, transport costs and sheer engineering on their part, and the Memorial has been re-erected in its entirety. The Basra Memorial is now located thirty-two kilometres along the road to Nasiriyah, in the middle of what was a major battleground during the first Gulf War of 1990-1991. The Panel Numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with.