Orders, Decorations and Medals

Sold by Order of the Family

The outstanding Gallipoli V.C., Western Front M.C. group of seven awarded to Major H. James, Worcestershire Regiment, who was thrice wounded - twice in Gallipoli and again on the Somme in July 1916: his V.C. - the first such distinction won by his regiment - was awarded for extraordinary acts of bravery in June-July 1915, the last of them amounting to a protracted one man stand in an enemy sap near Gully Ravine throughout which, amidst mounds of dead and dying, he was exposed to ‘a murderous fire’ and ‘a shower of bombs’

Victoria Cross (Lieut. H. James, 4th Bn. Worcestershire Regt; 28 June & 3 July 1915); Military Cross, G.V.R. unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., Worc. R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.); French Croix de Guerre 1914-1916, with palm, the reverse of the upper and lower arms privately engraved, ‘Lt. H. James, V.C., 1st Bn. Worc. Regt.’ and the reverse centre ‘July 7th’; Panama, Medal de la Solidaridad 1917, bronze, generally good very fine (7) £160,000-180,000

V.C. London Gazette 1 September 1915:

‘For most conspicuous bravery during the operations in the southern zone of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

On 28 June 1915, when a portion of a regiment had been checked owing to all the officers being put out of action, 2nd Lieutenant James, who belonged to a neighbouring unit, entirely on his own initiative, gathered together a body of men and led them forward under heavy shell and rifle fire. He then returned, organized a second party, and again advanced. His gallant example put fresh life into the attack.

On 3 July 1915, in the same locality, 2nd Lieutenant James headed a party of bomb-throwers up a Turkish communication trench, and after nearly all his bomb-throwers had been killed or wounded, he remained alone at the head of the trench and kept back the enemy single-handed till a barrier had been built behind him and the trench secured. He was throughout exposed to a murderous fire.’

M.C. London Gazette 15 October 1918:

‘During an attack, he rode forward when the situation was obscure under heavy fire, and brought back most valuable information. He then reorganised and led forward parties of men from other units and skilfully formed a defensive flank where a gap had occurred, exposing himself for many hours to a very heavy fire. By his gallantry, coolness, and utter disregard of personal safety, he set a splendid example to all ranks.’

Herbert James was born in Ladywood, Birmingham in November 1887, where his father ran a jewellery engraving business. According to his sister, it was decided that he should enter the teaching profession after his education at Smethwick Central School, and certainly he was employed as a teacher’s assistant and later primary teacher at the Bearwood Road and Brasshouse Lane Schools, but, ‘being of a roving disposition’, he wanted to go abroad, and, in April 1909, against his father’s wishes, he enlisted in the 21st Lancers, in which regiment he was appointed a Trooper and embarked for Egypt.

Gallipoli

By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, James was serving as a Lance-Corporal in India, but he was quickly appointed to a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment and, in March 1915, embarked for the Dardanelles. Landing at ‘W’ Beach, Cape Helles on 24 April, James received a serious head wound in the severe fighting of the 25th-26th, and was evacuated to Malta. About two months later he rejoined the 4th Battalion, in time for a newly planned attack up Gully Ravine. The following account of his exploits on 28 June was taken from The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War, by Captain H. F. Stacke, M.C.:

‘All was ready and at 9 a.m. that morning the British guns opened fire, and at 10 a.m. the attacking troops advanced. The Worcestershires were not involved in that attack, their role being confined to holding the Brigade line further to the right, but the Battalion came in for heavy gun fire while the struggle on their left swayed to and fro. On the left flank the Turkish defences along the sea cliffs were taken with comparative ease; but in the Gully Ravine itself the fire of two strong redoubts held up the attack and drove the Lowland Battalions back into our lines. That evening the 5th Royal Scots renewed the attack on these two redoubts, only to fail in their turn.

The 5th Royal Scots in particular were heavily punished and most of their Company Officers were killed or wounded. Orders had been given that the 4th Worcestershires further to the right were to keep touch with the Scotsmen and to be ready to exploit any success. For that purpose Lieutenant James had been sent into the trenches of the Royal Scots to act as a Liaison Officer. When affairs became critical, he went up to the front line, at the request of the Royal Scots’ C.O., to assist in the attack. All the Scots officers in his vicinity had fallen, so Lieutenant James took command of the disorganised troops around him, restored order and established a satisfactory position. Then he went back and brought up reinforcements, only to find on his return that a renewed counter-attack by the enemy had shattered the defence. Once again, Lieutenant James re-established the line and maintained the defence until darkness fell.’

In point of fact, as verified by the citation for his subsequent award of the V.C., James led two counter-attacks himself, an extraordinary feat given the losses suffered during earlier attempts made by the Lowland Battalions - by way of illustrating the ferocious nature of the enemy’s response to such initiatives, it is worth noting that one of them, the 8th Scottish Rifles, lost 25 of its 26 officers and 448 men - all of them in the space of five minutes. And the slope up which he led his men was bereft of cover except for bushes and scrub.

Over the next two or three days the fighting surged back and forth until, by 1 July, the Turks had been pushed back each side of the Ravine, but not to its immediate front, where their positions formed a salient. And it was in the attack launched on that salient by the Worcestershires and Hampshires on the 2 July - not the 3rd as cited in the London Gazette - that James rounded-off the deeds that would result in the award of his V.C. The regimental history continues:

‘After due consideration it was decided that, in view of the increasing shortage of gun ammunition, a bombing attack up the existing saps would be preferable to a big attack over the top. Two saps in the centre of the hostile line were assigned to the Worcestershires; other saps further to the left were allotted to the Hampshires. At 9 a.m. on 2 July the attack began.

The attacking parties climbed out of our own sapheads, dashed across the open, rushed the sapheads of the enemy and made their way forward up the trenches. The two Turkish sapheads assigned to the 4th Worcestershires were each attacked by a party of about 30 men, those on the right being led by Lieutenant Mould and those on the left by Lieutenant James.

At first all went well. The enemy, surprised by the unusual hour of attack, fell back along the trench and Lieutenant James’ party were able to make their way up the saphead. Their advance was difficult for the winding trench was full of dead bodies. Since 4 June fight after fight had raged along it and soldiers of all ranks, including even a dead General, a Brigadier of the Lowland Division, were now heaped in the trench, some half-buried by fallen sand, others but newly killed.

The bombers advanced up the saphead to the trench junction at its further end. There the enemy were in waiting, and a furious bombing fight ensued. The enemy were well provided with bombs (in Gallipoli the British forces had at that date only “jam-tin” bombs. The Turks were supplied with spherical bombs of archaic appearance, but of much greater effect). and in rapid succession the men of Lieutenant James’s party were struck down. Presently only four were left standing - the Subaltern, one Lance-Corporal and two Privates. These four maintained an obstinate fight, hoping for reinforcements (a message had been sent asking for help, but the messenger had been killed on the way back). Several Turkish bombs fell into the trench and were thrown out or thrown back before they could burst; but at last one bomb burst among them and killed the two Privates.

Lieutenant James sent the Corporal, Lance-Corporal R. Reese, back to bring help and faced the enemy alone. The Turks were organising a counter-attack. A cluster of bayonets could be seen over the top of the trench. Presently came a shower of bombs and the bayonets moved forward. Before that attack Lieutenant James fell back along the winding trench, holding back the pursuit by bombing from each successive bend. The enemy followed.

Halfway back along the saphead, Lieutenant James came to a point where a heap of dead bodies blocked the trench. There he found one of his bombers, Private Parry, lying wounded. To protect him Lieutenant James turned to bay. Hastily forming a low barricade of sand bags (at that point was a small dump of bombs and sand bags on top of the dead bodies), James organised a temporary defence.

With two rifles and a sack of bombs, Lieutenant James held the trench single handed, alternatively lying behind his barricade to fire then rising to bomb the Turks after his rifle had driven them back behind cover. Amid a shower of bombs he held his ground until the arrival of reinforcements headed by Sergeant-Major Felix. A barricade was built further down the trench, and the wounded Private Parry was got back to safety. Then at last Lieutenant James fell back behind the new barricade. The Turkish attack was stopped and the fight died down.

For his gallantry in this fight and in the preceding action, Lieutenant James was awarded the Victoria Cross; being the first of the Regiment to gain that highest reward of valour.’

By August 1915 - when the recommendation for his V.C. was well-advanced along the corridors of power - James was serving as Adjutant, in which capacity he made regular habit of going out in search of wounded in No Man’s Land during the night, on one occasion dragging back two men single-handed. As with his earlier V.C. exploits, most were amazed that he emerged unscathed from such gallant forays, but on the night of 27-28 September 1915, while visiting one of his battalion’s advanced saps, his luck ran out and he received a serious foot wound. He was evacuated to Cairo.

Arriving at Southampton in mid-November on a month’s sick leave, this remarkably quiet and modest man deliberately took an earlier train home to Birmingham than expected, thereby avoiding the large reception afforded fellow V.C., Lance-Corporal Arthur Vickers of the Warwickshires, who was travelling on the same train - James quietly left the station by taxi. Inevitably, however, it was impossible to avoid the growing clamour for his attendance at assorted civic receptions, among them a special ceremony in Victoria Square, hosted by the city’s Lord Mayor, Neville Chamberlain, the future Prime Minister, and a trip to his old school to be presented with a splendid “Sword of Honour” - but on all such occasions James spoke but briefly.

France and beyond

Returning to active service with the 1st Battalion in March 1916, he was wounded in a fierce hand-to-hand encounter in the ruins of the village of Contalmaison on the Somme on 7 July, and evacuated to a hospital on the Isle of Wight and thence to the mainland - it was on this occasion that his wounds necessitated him having a silver plate inserted in his head. Yet he would return to France in May 1917 and add the Military Cross to his accolades for the above cited deeds near Amiens, in addition to a brace of “mentions” (London Gazette 20 May and 20 December 1918 refer), the French Croix de Guerre (London Gazette 1 May 1917 refers) and, most unusually, the Medal de la Solidaridad of Panama (London Gazette 17 February 1920 refers), Panama having declared war on Austria in December 1917.

In June 1920, James attended the Buckingham Palace gathering for recipients of the V.C., while in November of the same year he was chosen for the Honour Guard at the ceremony marking the burial of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey - about this time, too, he transferred to the East Lancashire Regiment and was given the Brevet of Major. Having then served in the West Indies, he returned home to take up an appointment in the War Office, followed by a stint as Brigade Major at Aldershot 1927-28, when he transferred to the York and Lancaster Regiment, but, as a result of failing health, he was placed on the Retired List in March 1930.

A tragic end

By the mid-1950s James was separated from his second wife and renting a back room flat at Brunswick Gardens in Kensington, apparently making a living as a fine art dealer, and it was here, in August 1958, that he was found by his landlord, lying unconscious - tragically it appeared that he had had a seizure but remained undiscovered for six days. None of his fellow residents had any idea that he was a V.C. winner, for the Major lived a reclusive life, had no visitors or took no telephone calls, and it was only when the landlord returned to his room after the ambulance had departed that he picked up a book - ‘It was a complete list of V.Cs and it fell open at a page marked in pencil: the line was against Major James’ name and that was the first he knew of his record.’

James died on 15 August 1958, his funeral being attended by the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Sir Richard Gale, the Colonel of the Worcestershires and many other comrades from the regiment. He has no known memorials but a dramatic drawing of him defending the sap in Gully Ravine, by Gilbert Holliday, is owned by the Worcestershire Regiment Museum - it was presented to the museum by Lieutenant J. M. P. Baird, one of James’ Gallipoli contemporaries and was exhibited at Marlborough House at the time of the V.C. centenary celebrations in 1956.

Sold with a large silver salver, hallmarks for London 1915, bearing an engraved Worcestershire Regiment crest and the following inscription, ‘Presented to / Lieut. H. James, V.C. / The Worcestershire Regiment / From a Few of His Brother Officers / in the 4th Bn. Worcestershire Regiment / On the Occasion of His Marriage / September 1916’, followed by a list of those officers, 19 of them in total and including Lieutenant-Colonel E. Kerans; together with a silver riding cup, hallmarks for London 1918, with inscription, ‘Feb. 12th 1919 / Won By Capt. H. James, V.C., M.C. / On “Anthony” ’ (James was a talented horseman, his mount on this occasion being named after his son); a presentation silvered-bronze medallion, the edge inscribed, ‘Presented by the Worc. County Council to Lt. Herbert James, the First Member of the Worc. Regt. to be Awarded the Victoria Cross, 1915’, in its fitted leather case of issue; several original documents, including Fourth Army H.Q. certificate announcing the award of his M.C., signed by Rawlinson and dated 30 August 1918, and his M.I.D. certificates, the first in the name of ‘Lt. [T. Capt.] H. James, V.C., 1st Bn., Worc. R., dated 7 April 1918, and the second, in the name of ‘Lt. [T. Capt.] H. James, V.C., M.C., Worc. R.’, and dated 8 November 1918; and a photograph of James outside Buckingham Palace, most probably taken at the time of the V.C. gathering of 1920.

Also see Lot 1080 for his son’s Honours and Awards.