Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Petty Officer R. D. Richardson, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was attached to the Royal Naval Division and severely wounded in the German Spring Offensive in March 1918

Military Medal, G.V.R. (ZT-1753 L.S., Anson Bn., R.N.V.R.); 1914-15 Star (TZ. 1753 A.B., R.N.V.R.); British War and Victory Medals (T.Z. 1753 P.O., R.N.V.R.), minor edge nicks and contact wear, generally very fine or better (4)
£800-1000

M.M. London Gazette 9 July 1917.

Robert David Richardson, a miner from South Shields, who was born in January 1896, enlisted in the Tyneside Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, in November 1914, was posted South to Crystal Palace and joined the strength of Collingwood Battalion, Royal Naval Division in January 1915. Transferred to the Anson Battalion that June, he served with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Stavros and was embarked at Mudros for France in May 1916.

Advanced to Leading Seaman in April of the following year, Richardson’s service record reveals that the award of his M.M. was first notified in Anson Battalion routine orders in May 1917, shortly before his advancement to Acting Petty Officer. Less happily, however, he was ‘severely reprimanded for neglect of duty and telling a lie’, that September, but appears to have retained his acting rate. Then on 25 March 1918, he was severely wounded in the wrist and admitted to 56 General Hospital at Etaples, and thence to 2 Eastern General Hospital in Brighton. Having then been presented with his M.M. at Aldershot, while attending a Lewis Gun Course, Richardson was demobilised as a Petty Officer at Ripon in December 1918.