A fine Great War Somme July 1916 operations M.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant G. L. Davidson, Dorsetshire Regiment, who died of the wounds he received in winning his decoration for a daring attack over open ground in broad daylight

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Lieut., Dorset R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.), generally good very fine (4) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 25 August 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led an attack across the open in daylight to take a strongly fortified “stop”. His attack was successful and enabled the whole trench to be seized and consolidated. He was twice wounded.’

Gerald Louis Davidson was born in February 1886 and briefly served in the London Scottish 1909-10 prior to travelling to the East. In December 1914, however, presumably after gaining swift passage back to the U.K. from his travels, he applied for a commission in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and was sent out to France as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion in December 1915.

He subsequently participated in his Battalion’s attack on the Quadrangle Support between Mametz Wood and Contalmaison on 9 July 1916, for which he won his M.C. for the above related deeds, but his two wounds were patently of a serious nature, and he died at No. 23 Casualty Clearing Station 48 hours later. Davidson is buried in the Heilly Station Cemetery at Mericourt-L’Abbe.

His M.C. was sent by the War Office to his sister, Miss Helen Davidson, at Bullingham Mansions, Kensington in December 1916.