Orders, Decorations and Medals

A good Great War M.C., M.M. group of five awarded to Lieutenant J. R. Wilson, East Surrey Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; Military Medal, G.V.R. (10668 L. Sjt. J. Wilson, 7/E. Surr. R.); 1914 Star (L-10668 Pte. J. Wilson, 1/E. Surr. R.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut. J. Wilson), the first in its case of issue and the remainder mounted as worn, contact marks, thus nearly very fine (5) £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Chidzey Collection.

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M.C. London Gazette 7 November 1918:

‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. Notwithstanding a thick mist this officer lead his company on to the line of consolidation and held his position in spite of intense machine-gun fire from the front and flanks. Later on he led his company with great courage, overcoming the determined resistance of the enemy and successfully reaching his objective. He set a splendid example to his men throughout the operations.’

M.M. London Gazette 21 September 1916.

James Ralph Wilson, who was born in August 1896, enlisted in the East Surrey Regiment at Kingston-on-Thames in June 1913 and was studying for his 1st Class Army Certificate of Education on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Embarked for France with the 1st Battalion in the same month, he was wounded by a bullet in the back in early October and evacuated home.

Returning to active service in France as a Lance-Sergeant in the 7th Battalion in March 1916, he was probably awarded the M.M. for gallantry on the Somme, where his unit carried out a successful attack south-west of Ovillers on 8 July. And he was later recommended for a commission by the Brigadier-General commanding 37th Infantry Brigade.

Duly appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion in June 1917, he returned to active service and was awarded his M.C. in respect of his gallantry west of Bapaume on 21-23 August 1918. Having then gained advancement to Lieutenant in December 1918, Wilson was placed on the Reserve of Officers in July 1919.

He died at Matlock Sanatorium, Derbyshire, in April 1925, and his widow, Cissie, was awarded a War Office pension of £120 per annum, and their first born child, Cynthia, an annual allowance of £36. Tragically, however, Cissie died in December 1926, at which point the children’s appointed guardian, Stephen Hewitt, late Corporal, Gordons and Surrey’s, applied for a further annual allowance for the second child, though the outcome of his application remains unknown.