Queen's South Africa & CEF Group to Lt. Bateman

Queen's South Africa Medal, CAPE COLONY, ORANGE FREE STATE, TRANSVAAL, SOUTH AFRICA 1901, SOUTH AFRICA 1902 (Lieut. W. BATEMAN. Worc. Rgt.); 1914-15 Star (16731 SJT E.W. BATEMAN. 7/CAN:INF:); British War Medal (16731 SJT. E.W. BATEMAN. 7-CAN. INF.); and Victory Medal (16731 SJT. E.W. BATEMAN. 7-CAN. INF.). Naming is privately engraved on the QSA and officially impressed on the WWI Trio. Crisp detail, contacts marks on the QSA's rim from contact with adjoining Star, court-mounted, very fine. Accompanied by copies of his British QSA Medal Roll for the 2nd Worcestershire Regiment, CEF Attestation Paper, Service Records, Medical Records and Pay Records. Footnote: Edward Wade Bateman was born on February 7, 1878 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, the son of William Frederick and Ann Elizabeth Bateman. He signed his Attestation Paper on September 17, 1914 at Valcartier, Quebec, stating that he had five and half years' previous military service with the 2nd Worcestershire Regiment, having served in the South African campaign, that he was currently with an active militia, that he was not married and that his trade was that of Real Estate Agent. He listed his next-of-kin as his brother J.B. Bateman, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Leander, North Sea Fleet, Northampton, England. Eight days later, he was promoted to Corporal on September 25, 1914. The 7th Battalion "1st British Columbia Regiment" was raised in British Columbia and mobilized at Camp Valcartier, Quebec under the authority of P.C.O. 2067, August 6, 1914. The Battalion sailed October 3, 1914 with a strength of 47 officers, including Bateman, and 1,176 other ranks under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. Hart-McHarg. While in England at Lark Hill, he was promoted to Lance Sergeant on December 18, 1914 and then to Sergeant on January 15, 1915. The 7th Battalion served in France and Belgium with the 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. Bateman was declared "missing" and later presumed to be dead, as a result of fighting during the Second Battle of Ypres, on April 24, 1915. He is remembered with honour on the Menin Gate Memorial, which is situated at the eastern side of the town of Ypres (now Ieper) in the Province of West Flanders, Belgium, on the road to Menin and Courtrai. It bears the names of 55,000 men who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War. Carved in stone above the central arch are the words "TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918 AND TO THOSE OF THEIR DEAD WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE, while over the two staircases leading from the main Hall is the inscription "HERE ARE RECORDED NAMES OF OFFICERS AND MEN WHO FELL IN YPRES SALIENT BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH."