Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Great War M.M. and Bar group of four awarded to Leading Seaman William Thewlis, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division, who was twice severely wounded

Military Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar (TZ-5052 A.B.-H.G. W. Thewlis, Hawke Bn., R.N.V.R.); 1914-15 Star (T.Z. 5052 A.B., R.N.V.R.); British War and Victory Medals (T.Z. 5052 L.S., R.N.V.R.), very fine and better (4) £2000-2500

M.M. London Gazette 11 February 1919.

Bar to M.M. London Gazette 20 August 1919.

William Thewlis, a native of Chirton, North Shields, was born in January 1895 and worked as a miner with the Preston Coal Company prior to enlisting in the Tyneside Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, in June 1915 - aged 20 years, he stood at just five feet, three and a half inches tall.

Posted to Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division, in December 1915, which unit he joined out in Imbros in the New Year, he was re-embarked for France in May 1916 and wounded in action on 13 November of the same year. Treated at No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in Boulogne for a gunshot wound to his left shoulder, Thewlis was invalided home in the hospital ship St. Denis and did not rejoin his battalion out in France until May 1917.

Again severely wounded during a gas attack in March 1918, he was invalided home to the Admiralty Edinburgh War Hospital at Bangour, West Lothian. Here, however, he was quickly discharged, pressure from the German Spring Offensive having taken its toll, but an endeavour to get him quickly back in the Field failed, his records noting that he was again invalided from France in May. Finally, at the end of August, he rejoined the Hawke Battalion proper and was advanced to Able Seaman (H.G.) in the following month. A few days later he received confirmation that he had been awarded the M.M., by Routine Order dated 24 September 1918, an award no doubt reflecting his gallant services earlier in the year, when he was wounded.

Further advanced to Leading Seaman, Thewlis was awarded a Bar to his M.M. in Routine Orders dated 15 January 1919, and just three weeks later he was re-embarked for England, where he was demobilised at Ripon.