Lot 31
† The Bantams - A 1st Birkenhead Battalion MM – A tragic Family Story

The Petra Collection of Medals to the 22nd Foot (The Cheshire Regiment) & Other Properties | M26001
Auction: 12 February 2026 10:30 GMT
Description
A Tragic Family Story
The Military Medal awarded to Private Bernard Cadden 15th (Service) Battalion(1st Birkenhead) (Bantams) The Cheshire Regiment who lost most of his right hand when wounded, was Discharged no longer fit for Military Service and died of the Spanish Flu on the 5th of November 1918, His brother Sergeant John Cadden died of the Spanish Flue the following Day comprising, Military Medal, GVR, (201802 Pte B. Cadden. 15/Ches: R.), very fine (1)
Bernard was wounded, and lost most of his hand, and was discharged from the Army He Died of Spanish flu 5th Nov 1918. His brother Sergeant John Cadden also died of the Spanish flu the following day. Both were in Wallasey Military Hospital convalescing from wounds received in action.
A Newspaper Reported
John and his brother, Private Bernard Cadden, both died from pneumonia one day apart. Their joint funeral took place at Rake Lane Cemetery, and was preceded by a Requiem Mass, celebrated by the Very Rev. Canon Mottram, at St. Joseph's Church, Seacombe. The Rev. Father Corcoran performed the last rites at the graveside, in the presence of a large assembly of sorrowing friends and the general public. John was 28 and Bernard 26.
Their brother James was Killed in action in by a bursting shell while driving a gun-team in 1916 and is buried in Hebuterne.
The family were Irish, but Father Bernard got a job on the Liverpool docks so the family moved there around 1902.
Youngest brother Charles Leo Cadden was Killed in Action on the 2nd of December 1940 on HMS Forfar:
On 2 December 1940 Forfar was on the Northern Patrol. She had just left eastbound Convoy HX 90 and was on her way to join westbound Convoy OB 251. At 05:46 hrs she was about 500 nautical miles west of Ireland when the German submarine U-99 torpedoed her. The U-boat hit her with further torpedoes at 06:39, 06:43, 06:50 and 06:57 hours. Forfar sank quickly after the fifth torpedo hit her.
36 officers and 136 men were killed, including her commanding officer, Norman Arthur Cyril Hardy. The Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS St. Laurent, British destroyer HMS Viscount, and British cargo steamship Dunsley rescued 21 survivors and landed them at Oban in Scotland.
Sold with Copy Medal Index Card, Copy Service Papers Genealogical Information, Commonwealth War Graves Details and copy photographs of Bernard and James.

