Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine post-war O.B.E., Great War M.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Captain N. T. Thurston, 1/16th (The Queen’s Westminster Rifles) Battalion, London Regiment, who was subsequently Deputy Controller and A.R.P. Officer for Coventry and present during the devastating Luftwaffe raid of 14 November 1940 - a night that witnessed the destruction of 60,000 buildings including the city’s cathedral: it was owing to his hard work and fund raising over the coming years as Secretary of the Cathedral Reconstruction Committee that Basil Spence’s modern masterpiece finally arose from the ashes

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; Military Cross, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse of the Cross privately engraved, ‘Capt. N. T. Thurston, 1/Q.W.R., March 28th 1918’ and the reverse of the Bar ‘June 22nd 1918’; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt. N. T. Thurston); Defence Medal 1939-45, generally good very fine (5) £1800-2200

O.B.E. London Gazette 2 June 1962.

M.C. London Gazette 22 June 1918:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during a hostile attack. When the trench close in front of the Battalion H.Q. was nearly surrounded by the enemy, he at once took command of the situation. He established a defensive position, which he held with the personnel of the Battalion H.Q., organised bombing blocks, and himself used a rifle with excellent effect. By his splendid example under heavy fire he controlled a critical situation, and enabled a withdrawal to the next line of resistance to be carried out. He showed splendid coolness and initiative.’

Bar to M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

Norman Thomas Thurston, who was born at Anerley in May 1897 and educated at Dulwich College, enlisted in the 16th Battalion (The Queen’s Westminster Rifles), London Regiment, in April 1915. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant that August, he was embarked for France in January 1916, and remained actively employed in that theatre of war until the end of hostilities - his first M.C. was awarded for the above cited deeds near Gavrelle during the German Spring Offensive on 28 March 1918, and the Bar would appear to have been awarded in respect of a shelling incident east of Devil’s Wood on the Arras-Doullens Road on the night of 21-22 June 1918. He was also mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 24 December 1917, refers).

Demobilised in February 1919, Thurston worked for his uncle, a timber merchant, but with war clouds gathering in the 1930s, he joined the Civil Defence and was appointed A.R.P. Officer for the Cleethorpes Division of Lindsey in Lincolnshire. Six months after the renewal of hostilities, however, he took up appointment as Midland Regional Officer for Warwickshire, and it was in this capacity that he arrived in Coventry on the night of the devastating raid on 14 November 1940 - a shocking introduction to indiscriminate carpet bombing by any standards: in 11 hours 1500 H.E. bombs and 30,000 incendiaries fell on the city, destroying the cathedral and 60,000 buildings and causing 600 fatalities and countless injured.

Thurston, having that night set up an emergency office, actually remained based in Coventry for the remainder of the War, serving as the city’s Deputy Controller and A.R.P. Officer and, latterly, as Fire Guard Officer - appointments that witnessed the savage raids of early 1941, and beyond.

In terms of Coventry’s history, however, Thurston will best be remembered for his remarkable dedication and determination as Secretary of the Cathedral Reconstruction Committee from 1949 until the emergence of of Basil Spence’s modern masterpiece in the early 1960s - he was awarded the O.B.E. Thurston also served as Cathedral Bursar and Archivist and prepared a four volume history of the cathedral from 1940-62. He died in April 1968, aged 70 years; sold with copied research.