Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Lieutenant L. G. Hills, East Surrey Regiment, late London Regiment, Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force

Military Medal, G.V.R. (1343 L. Cpl. L. G. Hills, 21/Lond. R.-T.F.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut., R.A.F.); War Medal 1939-45, this last in its original card forwarding box, with related Army Council condolence slip, together with 21/London Regiment and R.A.F. badges, generally good very fine (6) £500-700

M.M. London Gazette 10 August 1916.

Leslie Goldston Hills, a native of Streatham, London, who was born in March 1893, originally enlisted in the 21/London Regiment in September 1912. First entering the French theatre of war in March 1915 - and thereby gaining entitlement to a 1914-15 Star - the award of his M.M. most likely stemmed from the Battalion’s part in heavy fighting on Vimy Ridge in May 1916, although accompanying extracts from the Battalion’s war diary also reveal much activity in the vicinity of Loos earlier in the year, including patrol work and heavy enemy bombardments. Absolutely certain is the fact the 21st was decimated in an attack on High Wood on the Somme in mid-September, just two officers and 60 men remaining out of the 570 that had started out.

Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers in May 1917, Hills was accepted as an Observer on probation in the Royal Flying Corps in March 1918, and was attached to No. 7 Squadron out in France from June until the end of hostilities. He was placed on the Unemployed List as a Lieutenant in May 1919. Recalled to the Colours on the renewal of hostilities, Hills was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the East Surreys, and died in the U.K. on 11 February 1941, aged 47 years. He is commemorated on a panel in West Norwood Cemetery.