Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A poignant pair of family Victory Medals to Captain E. U. Green, M.C., Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, late H.A.C., who was killed in action at Westhoek in August 1917, and his brother, 2nd Lieutenant V. U. Green, Middlesex Regiment, late 10th (Stockbroker) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, who was killed in action at Gaza in March 1917

Victory Medal 1914-19 (2) (Capt. E. U. Green; 2 Lieut. V. U. Green), very fine and better (2) £150-200

Their parents, Edward and Annie Unsworth Green, also lost a third son to enemy action, namely Company Sergeant-Major R. U. Green, H.A.C., who was shot by a sniper in April 1915, while a fourth son, the Rev. L. U. Green, survived the War, having served in France and Flanders as a Chaplain to the Forces, and been mentioned in despatches; the 1914 Star awarded to Captain E. U. Green was offered at auction by Spink & Son on 19 April 2012 (lot 627).

Edward Unsworth Green was born in Richmond, Surrey, in January 1880, where his father was a local wine merchant. Himself employed as a Brewer’s Clerk by Whitbread on Dulwich College, he enrolled in the Honourable Artillery Company (H.A.C.) in January 1900 and was mobilised at Armoury House on the outbreak of hostilities. Quickly appointed Company Quarter-Master Sergeant, he was embarked for France with the 1/1st Battalion, H.A.C., on 18 August 1914, and was present in the battles of Rouge Croix and Croix Barbe, in addition to an attack launched from Zouave Wood in mid-June 1915, when the unit suffered around 200 casualties. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, in December of the latter year, Green was present with his unit on the Somme in 1916, and was twice wounded in an attack on Hessian Trench on 7 July, being hit in the back of the head and left knee. He was evacuated to England and awarded the M.C. Subsequently rejoining the 9th Battalion in the Field, he was killed in action at Westhoek on 10 August 1917, and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menein Gate) Memorial, Belgium.

Vivian Unsworth Green was born in Richmond, Surrey, in August 1883, and, in common with his brother Edward, was also educated at Dulwich College. Afterwards joining the London Office of the Civil Service of South Africa, he enlisted in the 10th (Stockbroker) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in August 1914, and went out to France as a Lance-Corporal in June 1915, where he served in No. 8 Platoon, ‘B’ Company. Returning to England at the year’s end, he attended an O.C.U. at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was duly commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2/10th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. Embarked for Palestine, he was killed in action in the first battle of Gaza on 26 March 1917, and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.