WW1 soldier's 103-year-old chocolate lot fetches £3,000

An auction lot including nine 103-year-old chocolate bars that belonged to a World War One hero has sold for more than £3,000.

The chocolates, which were auctioned online, were found among a collection of items belonging to Leicestershire Regiment soldier Richard Bullimore.

Troops serving in France during the first Christmas of the war were given the Colonies Gift Tins.

Just one of Cpl Bullimore's 10 bars had been eaten.

The entire collection, including chocolate, cigarettes, medals, citations, letters and other material, was sold as a single lot and fetched £3,050.

Jo Coote, office manager at Scunthorpe-based auctioneers Eddisons CJM, said: "We have been very pleased with the response from the public and the press. The interest in this lot has been phenomenal."

She said the collection had been sold to a buyer in the UK.

Cpl Bullimore was awarded a number of medals for his service, including the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous gallantry during a clash in no man's land in the Ypres Salient in July 1915.

By then he was a corporal and led the night-time reconnaissance patrol of five men.

Despite being outnumbered by more than three to one, his patrol attacked with grenades, causing a number of enemy casualties.

They later withdrew and Cpl Bullimore carried one of his own wounded men back to the trenches.

In October 1916 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, but by then he was home because of shrapnel wounds to his head.

He recovered and in 1919 joined Leicestershire Police, where he rose to the rank of superintendent. He died in January 1967.

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