Pair: Lieutenant E. J. M. Griffiths, Cheshire Regiment

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. E. J. M. Griffiths.) good very fine (2) £120-£160

Eric John Mortlock Griffiths was born in Mussoorie, India, the son of the Reverend Talbot Monkton Milnes Griffiths, an Army Chaplain, in 1891, and prior to the Great War was working as a fruit farmer in South Africa.

‘In about 1914, my father ran away from his job on a fruit farm near Pietersburg in South Africa, hitchhiked to Cape Town, and stowed away on board a ship bound for England so that he could sign up to fight in the British army against the Germans. Due to his family status (his father had been an army chaplain in India and was related to the Earl of Crewe), he was automatically given a commission and he joined the war as a Lieutenant in the Cheshire Regiment. One day, he was ordered to lead his platoon in a direct frontal attack against enemy lines and as ordered, they charged into battle - only to face a barrage of bullets that made it suicide to continue. He immediately told his men to retreat and waited until they were on their way back to their own lines before starting to follow in their footsteps. Suddenly, one of his men was hit and went down. He ran to him, picked him up, slung him across his shoulders, and began to run for the safety of the British Lines. Unfortunately, the German gunners were beginning to find the correct range for their guns and a machine gun suddenly started pumping bullets around my father as he ran, dodging as best he could with the man hanging over his shoulders. Suddenly, he felt the impact of bullets hitting the man’s dangling legs, and blood sprayed wet against his face. But he kept going and at last he was out of range of the machine gun. Making straight for the medic tent, he placed the injured soldier on a cot and ordered the medics to take care of him. As they hurried to comply, he noticed that they seemed to be staring at him and he assumed it was because the man’s blood was all over him. Then an orderly came up to him and asked: “Excuse me, sir; but have you seen your face?” My father asked him what he meant, and in reply, the man silently handed him a mirror. He took one look - and fainted. One of the bullets from the German machine gun had taken his nose clean off his face. The surgeons eventually built a new nose for my father, using a bone from the middle finger of his left hand, which they had to amputate. All the men in my father’s platoon felt that he should have been awarded the V.C. for his bravery, but apparently the V.C. was only awarded to an officer when a more senior officer recommended it, and there were no senior officers around to make that recommendation.’ (family recollections refer).

Following the Great War Griffiths returned to southern Africa, and died at Salisbury (now Harare), on 14 February 1976.

Sold with the recipient’s identity bracelet, engraved ‘2nd. Lt. E. J. M. Griffiths. C. of E. 9th Cheshires’, the reverse engraved ‘Mametz Wood, July 1916; Kemmel Hill, Aug. 1916; Ploegsteert, Sept. 1916’; wound stripe; the recipient’s father’s silver matchbox, engraved ‘ Revd. T. M. M. Griffiths, D.D., M.R. V. P.L.H. 1896’; various Rhodesia Regiment insignia; and other ephemera; together with an account of the the recipient by his family and various photographic images.