Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Second Lieutenant T. E. A. Spearing, Northumberland Fusiliers, formerly Honourable Artillery Company, wounded at La Boiselle on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916

1914-15 Star (2182 Pte. T. E. A. Spearing. H.A.C.); British War and Victory Medals (2.Lieut. T. E. A. Spearing.) good very fine (3) £180-220

Thomas Edward Albert Spearing was born in Tooting, Surrey, in 1894, and attested for the Honourable Artillery Company on 8 September 1914. He served with the 1st Battalion Honourable Artillery Company during the Great War on the Western Front from 23 January 1915, in and out of the line until 18 March 1916. Commissioned Second Lieutenant on 19 March 1916, he was posted to 21st (2nd Tyneside Scottish) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. On 1 July 1916, Second Lieutenant Spearing was wounded at La Boiselle and sent home on H.M. Hospital Ship Panama on 6 July 1916. By 20 July 1916, he was receiving treatment at The Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, London. On 31 July 1917, he wrote to the War Office applying for a disablement pension…”my left elbow was destroyed by gun-fire on 1st July 1916 and in consequence the arm is practically useless”. He relinquished his commission on 19 May 1918 on account of ill-health caused by wounds (received a Silver War Badge). During the Second World War he served as an A.R.P. Warden in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and died there in 1963.

The Story of the Tyneside Scottish refers:
‘As the watches marked the half-hour (7:30 am) the two huge mines on the flanks of La Boiselle simultaneously exploded with a concussion that shook the ground for miles round, and the attack began… Officers and men had been literally mowed down, but in rapidly diminishing numbers they had resolutely pushed on to meet their deaths close to the enemy’s wire. No-man’s-land was reported to be heaped with dead… Our losses in killed were unnecessarily heavy owing to the fact that the Germans deliberately fired at and killed any wounded officer or man lying helpless in front of their trenches who made the slightest movement or showed any sign of life. Some officers and men waited until after dark and then managed with great difficulty to crawl towards our lines, and were assisted over the parapet by men who went over to meet them.’

The 2nd and 3rd Battalions had at first penetrated to some trenches several hundred yards beyond the German’s first line trench, but after severe fighting had been forced back by superior numbers to the first line trench. Major Acklom had taken command of the remnants of the two battalions and held about 300 yards of enemy front line and a short length of a support trench further on. The former trench was to become invaluable on 2 July 1916 as the tunnel constructed in connection with the mine south of La Boiselle ran up to this enemy front line trench, thus enabling the wounded to be evacuated and communications to get through.

21st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers casualties on 1 July 1916 are noted in the War Diary as: 12 Officers and 55 men killed, 10 Officers and 256 men wounded and 116 men missing.