Auction Catalogue

17 & 18 September 2009

Starting at 11:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 1298

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18 September 2009

Hammer Price:
£2,400

A Second World War ‘London Blitz’ G.M. group of three awarded to Post Warden George Richard Titcombe, Air Raid Precautions Service

George Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue (George Richard Titcombe, M.M.); British War and Victory Medals (356468 Pnr., R.E.); together with an erased Military Medal, G.V.R., first three good very fine (4) £1600-2000

G.M. London Gazette 14 February 1941. ‘George Richard Titcombe, M.M., A.R.P., Post Warden, Hampstead’. ‘When a number of H.E. bombs fell in his Post area, Warden Titcombe showed great courage and coolness in controlling and co-ordinating all the incidents and, by skilful direction of rescue operations carried out at considerable personal risk, he was the means of saving life. He was in the open street under barrage and enemy bombardment for some hours near an unexploded bomb. When it was reported to him that a nurse and child were under a demolished building, a block of flats, and that it might be possible to crawl inside, he, for the first time, left his post and made an heroic effort to reach them. He rallied Wardens and let them into buildings, bringing out trapped persons. Many of the houses seemed to be in danger of collapse but he did not hesitate for a moment and set a splendid example to all around him’.

Although the recipient’s ‘Military Medal’ is mentioned in copied official papers, the M.M. is not confirmed. Also served in the Notts. and Derby Regiment in the Great War. At the time of the Second World War he was living at 16 Ulysses Road, N.W.6 and was employed as a Radio Engineer. Sold with a quantity of copied official papers.