This is an incredibly well documented group to a Marine who saw a lot of fighting with the 5th Marine Regiment. PFC Fox was with that Regiment during the bloody Guadalcanal Campaign and next was sent to Cape Gloucester where they landed on Dember 26, 1943. It was just 4 days later the PFC Fox was wounded. He became one of the 310 Marine fatal casualties in the Cape Gloucester Campaign.
Bryan Fox was born May 16, 1919 in St. Paul, Minnesota, son of Carl and Lucille Fox. Fox grew up in Lowell, Mass. and he played 3 years of semi-pro football, and boxed 3 years as an amatuer. He won 2nd place in the Golden Gloves in the 175 pound class, and was a champ in his training station in Parris Island. Bryan Fox enlisted in the Marines December 15, 1941 in Boston.
PFC Fox was severely wounded by gun shot in the chest and back on December 30, 1943 at Cape Glucester, New Britain. He died of those wounds and complications on January 19, 1944 at USA 362nd Station Hospital, Oro Bay, New Guinea. He was buried in Grave #154, USAF Cemetery Soputa #1 in Soputa, New Guinea. He was reinterred in Grave 3110, USAF Cemetery #2, Finschhafen, New Guinea on May 8, 1945.
At his father's request, his body was returned to Lowell in 1949. On Saturday, March 12, 1949, there was a memorial service for PFC Fox at the the Saunders Funeral Home in Lowell. There were many organizations represented there, including the Lowell Detachment of the Marine Corps League and Auxilliary and American Legion Post 313. The Masachusetts Lt. Governor sent a representative also. At the burial after the service, a volley was fired graveside by a detachment of Marines from the Charlestown Naval Shipyard.
PFC Fox's group includes his officially engraved posthumous Type 1 Purple Heart with its small purple presenation box and its white outer box, as issued by the US Mint. In addition, there is an original 4 page memorial service bulletin, an original photograph of Fox in his Class A uniform, copies of 3 articles about Fox including detailed writeups about his memorial service, copy of his father's Application for Headstone, and other internet research.
Spring 2022 sold to a collector.
