Six: Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. Trice, Royal Signals, late Honourable Artillery Company

British War and Victory Medals (624754 Gnr. W. G. Trice. H.A.C. -Art-); Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial, reverse officially dated 1940, with integral top riband bar, mounted for wear, minor edge bruise to first, nearly extremely fine (6) £200-£240

Walter Glynne Trice was born in Cardiff on 11 August 1898 and attested for the Honourable Artillery Company on 13 September 1916, being posted to France as Gunner in the 309th (H.A.C.) Siege Battery on 25 April 1917. Consisting of four 6-inch howitzers, his unit served as part of No. 88 Heavy Artillery Group and was immediately engaged at Poperinghe. It was here that he was wounded on 3 June 1917, suffering a gunshot wound to the left foot and right leg. According to The H.A.C. in the Great War, 1914-1919, his Battery were spotted that afternoon by an enemy balloon. The German guns altered their ranges, and a shell dropped alongside a dugout. The blast wounded three Gunners, one of whom died the next day.

Evacuated home to recover, Trice returned to the Western Front and rejoined his Battery in early November 1917 at a point just beyond the Langemarck-St. Julian road. He spent much of the winter of 1917-18 fighting in the Ypres salient, before being hastily transferred to Bassu and Cappy at the height of the German Spring Offensive. Travelling on to Hem Wood and Curlu Corner, it seems likely that his unit was the last Siege Battery to cross the River Somme before the bridges were blown in the early hours of 26 March 1918. As waves of fast-moving stormtrooper infantry continued to press home their attacks, it fell to the Allied Gunners to keep up a curtain of fire around Clery and buy time.

Returned home, Trice was appointed to a commission in the Royal Signals in 1921, raised Captain in 1925, Major in 1934, and Lieutenant Colonel in 1937 with the 53rd (Welch) Division. Awarded the 1937 Coronation Medal as Colonel in the Royal Signals Territorial Force, he was further bestowed the Territorial Efficiency Decoration in 1940 as Lieutenant Colonel. From analysis of the recipient’s Officer Service Papers, he spent much of the Second World War with 53 Divisional Signals training new recruits and commanding various signal units. His health failing, Trice was struck off strength on 12 July 1945, but remained in the service of the Territorial Army Reserve of Officers. He died at Chester in July 1985.

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