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Auction: 14003 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 58

A Great War 1914 'Battle of Armentières' D.C.M. Group of Four to Private E.H. Gratton, Leicestershire Regiment
a) Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R (7430 Pte. E.H. Gratton. 1/Leic: Regt.)
b) 1914 Star, with Bar (7430 Pte. E.H. Gratton. 1/Leic: R.)
c) British War and Victory Medals (7430 Pte. E.H. Gratton. Leic. R.), traces of adhesive to reverses, generally very fine or better (4)

D.C.M. London Gazette 16.1.1915 7430 Pte. E.H. Gratton 1st Bn. Leics. Regt., 'For conspicuous gallantry on 25th October [1914] near Rue du Bois, when he brought up ammunition under heavy fire from the enemy, who were at a distance of only 30 yards. He behaved with much gallantry on another occasion the same day.'

7430 Private Ernest Harry Gratton, D.C.M., served with the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, from 1905; he transferred to the 1st Battalion for service during the Great War; the 1st Battalion landed at St. Nazaire, France, 10.9.1914; by the end of September the battalion had taken up positions on the Aisne; on the 19th October the battalion reached Armentières, taking up a defensive position the following day on the Rue du Bois; they were now entrenched to take part in the Battle of Armentières, 22nd October - 2nd November 1914; the Official History Of The War, Military Operations, France And Belgium, Volume I gives the following for the dates that Gratton distinguished himself:

"An attack at dawn on the 23rd was bold in the extreme. In the morning mist - and now every morning in Flanders was misty - German officers and men, though beaten off by the 1/Buffs and 1/Leicestershire, reached the parapet of the 1/Shropshire L.I. and the 2/York and Lancaster; most of them were bayoneted on it, but a few actually jumped into the British trenches, and, after hand-to-hand fighting, were killed.

In view of the attacks on the 6th Division, the 10th Brigade of the 4th Division took over the front of the 12th Brigade, that is as far as Chapelle d'Armentières, as well as its own, and the 12th was assembled in reserve at the junction of the two divisions. On the 24th this brigade relieved the 17th Brigade, taking over the 6th Division trenches as far as Rue du Bois, so that the 4th Division now had a front of over eight miles.

At dawn on the 24th October - the day of the loss and recapture of Polygon Wood further north - the German Sixth Army made another attempt at a general attack on the whole front from the La Bassée Canal to the Lys. Its failure against the II Corps has already been related. It was everywhere repelled in the III Corps, except on the front of the 16th Brigade, which, as it faced south, was specially exposed to enfilade. After a few lucky shots had wiped out some of the trenches, German infantry from the cover of factory buildings penetrated for a time into the line of the 1/Leicestershire, which lost 225 men before the gap was closed. Fighting continued all day and into the night, and at 11pm there was a consultation between Generals Ingouville-Williams and Congreve, commanding the 16th and 18th Brigades. They decided to withdraw the 16th Brigade to the line Touquet - Flamengrie Farm - Rue du Bois, about five hundred yards in rear, which had been prepared, with divisional approval, for occupation should the Germans again attack. Early in the morning of the 25th the enemy did again make desperate efforts to break in, especially against the Leicestershire. The retirement was therefore ordered. Although in close touch with the enemy, the 16th Brigade on the night of the 25th/26th withdrew in heavy rain and pitchy darkness to its new line without interference, and the right of the 18th conformed. The casualties in the 16th Brigade in the four days' fighting... were 28 officers and 557 other ranks.'

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Sold for
£4,200