Orders, Decorations and Medals

Six: Warrant Officer Class 1 A. Patrick, Rifle Brigade, who was later awarded the Medal of the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire for gallantry as a Sergeant in Leeds City Police

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Transvaal, Cape Colony, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (6926 Pte., Rifle Bde.); 1914 Star, with clasp (6926 Cpl., 3/Rif. Brig.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (6926 W.O. Cl. 1, Rif. Brig.); Jubilee 1935; The Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, bronze medal (Arthur Patrick, Leeds, 27-11-29), the first with slightly bent suspension bar and re-pinned (slack) suspension claw, the campaign awards with contact marks and polished, good fine or better, the last two good very fine (6) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Cheshire and Manchester Regiments, Rifle Brigade and Royal Green Jackets formed by the late David Boniface.

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Arthur Patrick, who was born at Mount Pleasant, Liverpool in October 1882, was placed on the Army Reserve following his service in South Africa and joined Leeds City Police in September 1909.

Mobilised on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was embarked for France with the 3rd Battalion, Rifle Brigade in the following month, and first went into action at Soupir a few days later - by the end of the year his Battalion had sustained casualties of 537 men killed, wounded or missing, three of the latter apparently having “disappeared” while visiting German positions in the famous Christmas Truce.

For his own part, Patrick went on to gain a mention in despatches (London Gazette 15 June 1916 refers), and afterwards transferred to the Hertfordshire Yeomanry as a Squadron Sergeant-Major.

Returning to his previous appointment in Leeds City Police after the War, he remained similarly employed until his retirement in November 1938, in which period he was advanced to Sergeant and awarded the Jubilee Medal, being one of 63 policemen from Leeds who attended the Hyde Park gathering in July 1935. So, too, the Medal of the Society for Protection of Life from Fire, a bronze award for saving an elderly lady from her bedroom window in her residence in Little Bridges Street, Leeds on 27 November 1929 - the interior of the house was more or less destroyed by the fire and but for Patrick’s timely intervention by ladder, with the assistance of another police officer, the elderly lady would surely have died (Society Case No. 16,501 refers).