Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 8010 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 152

Pair: Private H.G. Norton, Suffolk Regiment, Killed in Action ´On the First Day of the Somme´, 1.7.1916 British War and Victory Medals (15583 Pte. H.G. Norton. Suff.R.), nearly extremely fine (2) Estimate £ 200-240 15583 Private Harry George Norton, born Burwell, Cambridgeshire; served during the Great War with the 11th (Service) Battalion Suffolk Regiment on the Western Front, he was killed in action 1.7.1916, ´´on which date the battalion moved up from Becourt Wood into position behind the 10th Lincolnshires... within two minutes of zero hour, before the lines of the 10/Lincolnshires had cleared the front trench, machine gun fire raked them and those of the 11/Suffolk´´s following. The latter unit, in addition, suffered from a weak artillery barrage placed on the British trenches by the German batteries soon after the assault had been launched. Men fell fast and the lines were gradually reduced to isolated small parties´´ (Official History 34th Division, 101st Brigade, refers); Norton is listed on the Battalion´´s orders for the day, as a member of a party which was to proceed as far as possible by German trenches to Lincoln Redoubt and then on to Bailiff Wood; he, like many others, never made it and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, and on the Burwell Village Memorial.

Sold for
£300