A scarce Second World War B.E.F. 1940 operations M.M. group of four awarded to Lieutenant E. Marsden, Royal Tank Regiment (Royal Armoured Corps)

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (7885532 A. Sjt. R. Marsden, R. Tank R.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, minor contact wear, good very fine or better (4) £1200-1500

M.M. London Gazette 23 August 1940. Details of the recipient’s deeds were published in The Times:

‘Although his tank was separated from the troop detachment and hit three times by anti-tank fire and severely damaged, he kept in action, knocking out one enemy tank and engaging several anti-tank guns. Eventually he brought his tank out of action and rejoined the squadron.’

Robert Marsden was raised in Brighouse, near Huddersfield but later moved to Bournemouth. Educated at St. Andrews’s School, Brighouse, he was employed as an apprentice at Messrs. Ramsden and Camm until 1935, when he enlisted in the Royal Tank Regiment, aged 17 years. An acting Sergeant by the outbreak of hostilities, he was serving in 5th R.T.R. at the time of winning his M.M. for the above cited deeds near St. Valery on 29 May 1940.

The Tanks, The History of the Royal Tank Regiment, by Liddell Hart, states:

‘A similar situation developed on the other flanks, where the 5th R.T.R. reached the outskirts of St. Valery before meeting opposition, but there met a well-posted defence, and then found no help was forthcoming from the French. While waiting for this, Drew probed the enemy’s defence with tank patrols, and one (Lieutenant A. H. Laing and Sergeant Marsden) actually penetrated it near Boismont.

During the afternoon a succession of different plans were made by the French divisional commander, who eventually decided that his troops would establish a line of defended localities on the general line of the second bound - the line which had been reached without opposition! He wanted to dispose the tanks in packets along the defensive front, but Crocker’s objections prevailed. While the arrangements were being finally settled, about 7 p.m., a message came from Drew that he was putting in an attack at St. Valery in co-operation with the French - but again they failed to back up the tank advance.

During the day’s fighting the Brigade’s “write-off” tank casualties had been eleven cruisers and seven lights - lost for nothing. The French commander, however, sent a warm message of thanks for the Brigade’s help in the conquest of the ground ‘we have achieved’. The 2nd Armoured Brigade had suffered a similar experience, and heavier losses. In all the two brigades had 65 tanks knocked-out, though some were recovered.’

To which the Brighouse and Elland Echo later reported:

‘He had been in France for about six weeks and in a letter stated that they went into action almost immediately on arrival. It appears that Sergeant Marsden, who is of retiring disposition, was just as surprised as his family when he learned that he had been awarded the M.M.’

Posted to the Middle East, where he was commissioned in the R.A.C., Marsden was taken P.O.W. in 1942 and ended the War incarcerated in Oflag O79 at Braunschwieg; sold with several wartime newspaper cuttings.