Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War ‘Battle of Amentières 1914’ D.C.M. group of nine awarded to Senior Mechanic J. S. Bowdidge, Royal Air Force, late Somerset Light Infantry

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (8342 L. Cpl., 1/Som. L.I.); 1914 Star, with clasp (8342 Pte., 1/Som. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (8342 Sjt., Som. L.I.) slight corrections to naming; India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1930-31 (302794 S.M.1, R.A.F.); Defence and War Medals, unnamed; Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (302794 S.M.2, R.A.F.); Russia, St. George Medal for Bravery, 4th Class, silver, reverse inscribed, ‘No.165066’, edge inscribed, ‘Actg. Sjt. J. S. Bowdidge, 1/Somt. L.I.) some contact marks, good fine and better (9) £3000-3500

D.C.M. London Gazette 17 December 1914. ‘For skill and gallantry in leading men in house to house fighting at Le Gheer, on 21st October’.

M.I.D. London Gazette Not confirmed.

St. George Medal for Bravery, 4th Class London Gazette 25 August 1915.

Sergeant Bowdidge 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 21 August 1914. He won the D.C.M. for his gallantry in the counter-attack on the village of Le Gheer, during the Battle of Amentières. Of this, Lieutenant-Colonel Watson wrote in his diary, recorded in The History of the Somerset Light Infantry 1914-1919, by Everard Wyrall:

‘I am told that the way ‘A’ Company, followed by ‘B’ Company, cleared the Saxons out of Le Gheer at the point of the bayonet, was a sight never to be forgotten’. It was further recorded in the book, ‘As ‘A’ forced its way through the village each house was surrounded whilst two men entered and made a thorough search of the premises. This method was carried out systematically, until by 12.55 p.m. Le Gheer had been cleared of the enemy and the southern and eastern ridges held. ‘A’ Company had captured 101 prisoners and had released 2 officers and 40 men of the Inniskilling Fusiliers, taken by the Germans in the early morning. This brilliant little affair, the first bayonet charge made by the 1st Bn. Somerset Light Infantry since its arrival in France, drew immediate and well-earned congratulations, first from the G.O.C., 11th Infantry Brigade (General Hunter-Weston), and later from the C-in-C. himself’.

Bowdidge later served in the R.A.F.; his Great War medals being sent via the O/C. R.A.F. Halton, in Buckinghamshire.