Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War Ypres 1915 D.C.M. group of five awarded to Sergeant A. J. Weston, Royal Army Medical Corps

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (5367 Pte., R.A.M.C.); 1914 Star, with clasp (5367 Pte., R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (5367 Cpl., R.A.M.C.); Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., Regular Army (7250214 Sjt., D.C.M., R.A.M.C.), the first with severe edge knock, otherwise generally very fine (5) £700-900

D.C.M. London Gazette 11 March 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry in attending to wounded after his Medical Officer had been killed early in the action. Later, when his medical bag had been destroyed, he went back to the dressing station, obtained medical appliances, and returned to attend the wounded in the trenches under heavy shell fire.’

Albert J. Weston, who first entered the French theatre of war as a Private in the 1st Cavalry Division Field Ambulance in mid-August 1914, was awarded his D.C.M. for the above related deeds at Ypres on 13 May 1915 (official records refer). His unit’s war diary confirms the evacuation of 14 officers and 180 other ranks by motor ambulance convoy on that date, ‘all lying down cases were soaked with rain and mud ... one case shattered leg required amputation ... two cases suffering from shock required transfusion’. So, too, that Lieutenant Chapman, R.A.M.C. was killed in action, no doubt the officer referred to in Weston’s citation.