A Great War Western Front ‘Trench Raid’ M.M. group of four awarded to Private T. McLean, Manchester Regiment

Military Medal, G.V.R. (275935 Pte. T. Mc Lean. 1/7 Manch: R. - T.F.); 1914-15 Star (3245 Pte. T. Mc Lean. Manch. R.); British War and Victory Medals (275935 Pte. T. Mc Lean. Manch. R.) mounted as worn, the 1914-15 Star an officially issued replacement marked ‘Duplicate’, good very fine (4) £300-£400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Robert Barltrop Collection of Medals to the Manchester Regiment.

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M.M. London Gazette 16 August 1917.

Thomas McLean was born at Bradford, Yorkshire, on 29 August 1894. He enlisted ‘for the duration of the war’ into 7th (Territorial) Battalion the Manchester Regiment on 1 December 1914 and served with his battalion in the Gallipoli campaign, landing at ‘V’ Beach on 7 May 1915. He was evacuated to Mudros on 26 October 1915, suffering from dysentery, but rejoined his unit on 20 November 1915. In March 1917 his battalion moved to France and the Western Front. In April 1917 the battalion was at Havrincourt, where they occupied ‘Manchester Trench’ and ‘Cheetham Hill’. A trench raid had been carefully planned for 3 July 1917, on ‘Wigan Copse’, and the raiding party ‘leaped out and rushed into the copse like howling dervishes’; three prisoners were taken, at least eight Germans were shot or bayonetted, and the raiding party returned to the British lines without a single casualty. Second Lieutenant Hodge was awarded the Military Cross for the raid and Sergeant McHugh and Privates Thomas McLean and Braithwaite received Military Medals, these were the first decorations to the battalion on the Western Front.
McLean was invalided home after an accident whilst playing football, transferred to the 8th (Reserve) Battalion, and was discharged from the army on 8 November 1918. He died in 1973.

Sold with extensive copied research.