‘I have been sitting in about a foot of mud in a trench full of dead bodies which swell. But I am used to it and it makes no difference to me ... My battery alone must have fired many more shells than were used in the South Africa War by the whole army ... We were the only Division who took both lines of the German trenches and in the process my Brigade wiped out the Prussian Guard by shell fire. In some of our Infantry Battalions there is hardly an officer left. Over half our gunners in my battery were casualties. I got wounded in the shoulder but not badly ... looking at the German positions one wonders how they could have been taken at all, they were so strong.’
Captain J. C. A. Simson, R.F.A., describes the Somme offensive, July 1916

A fine Great War M.C. group of six awarded to Captain J. C. A. Simson, Royal Engineers, late Royal Field Artillery, who was twice wounded - the latter confirmed by an accompanying archive of some 80 letters home

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut. J. C. A. Simson, R.F.A.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. J. C. A. Simson); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, together with a Royal Engineers cap badge, very fine and better (7) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 5 January 1917.

John Charles Arthur Simson, who was born in 1887, was employed as a merchant in Ceylon at the time of the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, but quickly returned home and enlisted in the Royal Horse Guards that October.

Subsequently commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery in April 1915, he was appointed to 95th Brigade, R.F.A., out in France in August 1915, and was quickly in action at Loos. In March 1916, he was ordered to the Somme, where, as touched upon by the above quote from a letter home in July, his battery was heavily engaged throughout July - originally at the capture of Fricourt and afterwards at Mametz Wood, Bazentin and Le Petit. Slightly wounded on 20 July 1916, Simson remained on active duty, and served with his battery on the Arras front in August-September, prior to returning to the Somme - ‘I was present at the capture of High Wood, Switch Trench and Flers on 15 September 1916.’ He was awarded the M.C.

His battery having then been positioned opposite the Hohenzollern Redoubt during the winter months, Simson was injured by a fall in March 1917, and invalided home - but he was back on active duty a few weeks later, during the battle of Arras. Entrained for Flanders in August of the same year, his battery went into action at the Third Battle of Ypres - ‘we were in a position on Hill 60 and near Sanctuary Wood, supporting the attack on Menin Road ... On 28 September I was hit by H.E. shell, a piece of which penetrated my right thigh. I was sent home to hospital.’

Simson, who returned to France in October 1918, was demobilised in the acting rank of Major in June 1919. But he returned to uniform in the 1939-45 War, when he was appointed a Lieutenant, R.A., in the summer of 1940, and later still a Captain in the Royal Engineers, in which capacity he was employed by the Military Forwarding Organisation up until being placed on the Retired List in June 1944.

to be sold with the following archive of original documentation:

(i) A highly impressive collection of Great War vintage letters, the majority from the recipient to his father (approximately 80), in addition to several telegrams, covering the period 4 November 1914 to March 1919, two of the telegrams reporting him wounded (on 20 July 1916 and on 28 September 1917), an important archive, and well worthy of further investigation and research.

(ii) The recipient’s Certificates of Discharge and Character, Royal Horse Guards, and dated in April 1915 when he was appointed to a commission; together with his warrant for the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery, dated 23 April 1915.

(iii) His hand written statement of services, for August 1915 to August 1917, signed by the recipient.

(iv) A piece of Iron Cross ribbon with accompanying wartime pencilled note, ‘Taken off tunic of dead German officer, June 1916 ... in the Hindenburg Line’, and an Austrian Jubilee Medal 1898, bronze-gilt, no doubt similarly obtained on a different date.

(v) Two field messages, one addressed to Simson in respect of him escorting an officer under arrest, dated 7 December 1918.

(vi) A quantity of Great War maps (21), the majority of them of a trench warfare interest.

(vii) Picture post card albums for the Runis of Ypres-Poelcapelle 1914-18 and Views of Ypres ‘Then and Now’, together with a photographic pamphlet with views of the Wilhelm II Battery, Knocke, and a selection of unbound images of Great War scenes (15).

(viii) Great War period photographs (approximately 20), including a fine studio portrait photograph in uniform, together with one or two images from the 1939-45 War.

(ix) A War Office letter granting Simson permission to proceed to India as a civilian, dated 24 December 1919, and a War Office letter placing him on the Special Reserve, dated 22 July 1920.

(x) A quantity of Army publications and training manuals (7), some of them of 1939-45 vintage, with the recipient’s extensive hand written notes.