Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Private T. H. Metcalfe, Grenadier Guards, a member of the 4th Battalion who died of wounds received in the Battle of Loos in September 1915

1914-15 Star (20211 Pte., G. Gds.), surname spelt ‘Metcalf’; British War and Victory Medals (20211 Pte., G. Gds.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Thomas Henry Metcalfe), good very fine or better (4) £180-220

Thomas Henry Metcalfe’s fate is best summarised by a feature that appears in Hyde in War Time 1914-16:

‘The story of Private Metcalfe’s death is a very painful one. He went into action on 27 September, and early received a serious wound in the thigh. While lying helpless on the ground he received a second injury, his leg being broken by a German bullet. This happened in the darkness of night. As fighting raged with more or less intensity in a fairly wide area, Private Metcalfe lay for four days on the battlefield before being picked up. He was then taken to base hospital at Le Havre, and underwent three operations, and for some time he appeared to be improving. On 28 October, however, an amputation of a leg was found to be necessary. After undergoing this ordeal, he had to submit to a further - fifth - operation on the evening of the same day. It was next morning, October 29, that he passed away. Before enlisting, on 6 November 1914, Private Metcalfe was employed at Hyde Gasworks, where his father was foreman. He was an only son. In his boyhood he attended the Hyde Wesleyan Day and Sunday School, but in recent years he was a member both of St. George’s Young Mens’ Class and of the Rowing Club. In a letter to a friend, he wrote while in hospital, he referred to his having been wounded, and said he wasn’t grumbling, though it was “rather trying to be on one’s back for three weeks, and unable to turn on one’s side.” This will give an idea of his severe sufferings. When he wrote the letter his fingers were affected by frostbite, and he told how upset he was on hearing that one of his St. George friends, Private F. Wood, was missing. His letter closed “with best wishes to the boys at the school and club.” Private Metcalfe, who was in the Grenadier Guards, enlisted along with four others from St. George’s Sunday School.’

He was 20 years of age and is buried in Sainte Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, France.