Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting Victory medal awarded to Lieutenant E. L. Orme, 3rd, attached 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who was killed in an attack on the Hindenburg, 27 May 1917, and who is said to be the subject of Sassoon’s poem ‘To any dead officer’

Victory Medal 1914-19 (Lieut. E. L. Orme.) very fine £100-150

Edward Leslie Orme was born in Oldham, Lancashire, on 28 August 1896, and educated at Shrewsbury School from January 1911 to 28 July 1914, where he was a private in the O.T.C. He initially enlisted into the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, before being commissioned on 24 April 1915, and posted to 3rd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, just a few weeks before Siegfried Sassoon joined the same battalion. He was attached to the 1st Battalion and joined that unit in France on 8 October 1915, being promoted to Lieutenant on 22 November. He was wounded by a high explosive shell in the right thigh at Fricourt on 4 June 1916, and was returned to England. This was recorded by Sassoon who said Orme was with a working party at the time. Passed fit for general service in January 1917, he was posted to 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 17 February. He was due to leave any day for the comparative safety of an instructor’s appointment when he was posted as wounding and missing. His “D” Company commander, Percy Moody, wrote a letter to the next of kin regretting that during an attack on the Hindenburg Line [27 May 1917] Orme was leading his platoon with great gallantry and was hit in three places. The enemy had counter-attacked and he was left dying. Moody added that Orme had been extremely popular with his brother officers and men.

The circumstances of Orme’s death provoked a great deal of correspondence, of which there is a substantial file in the National Archives (ref WO 339/29482). His Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Garnett, is on record that Orme would not permit himself to be moved; Chaplain E. R. Jones wrote that Orme, a ‘genial, cheerful, splendid leader of men,’ was hit in the abdomen and begged stretcher bearers to leave him alone as the pain was so intense; Private Beedles, “C” Company, said Orme was first hit in the left arm but carried on, later hit in the stomach which was cut open and the bowels protruding. Beedles added that our men had retired and the Germans were on them, and Orme said ‘I’m done, leave me!’ and that Orme, formerly platoon officer, was Bombing Officer on the day of his death. Other accounts gave a similar story but the most remarkable testimony turned out to be a lie, recanted in writing. A fictional Major Henderson of Corps H.Q. and a real Captain Elliott, Royal Field Artillery, testified that Orme had received a dose of morphia to relieve his pain. This turned out to be a lie dreamed up by Captain Elliott to comfort Mrs Elliott, herself related to Orme.

After a protracted correspondence and the inevitable delays, Lieutenant E. L. Orme was concluded to be dead on 4 December 1917, and officially killed in action on 27 May 1917. Orme is said to be the subject of Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘To any dead officer’.

Sold with a copied portrait photograph and some research.