Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private A. Pearce, York and Lancaster Regiment, killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916

1914-15 Star (15536 Pte. A. Pearce. York: & Lanc: R.); British War and Victory Medals (15536 Pte. A. Pearce. Y. & L.R.) good very fine (3) £300-400

Arthur Pearce was born at Grenoside, Sheffield, Yorkshire, and attested for the York and Lancaster Regiment at Birdwell, Yorkshire. He served with the 9th Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, and was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. On this date the Battalion was involved in the attack on Ovillers- following the 8th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the 8th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment over the top, almost half of the attacking force was lost in No Man’s Land by machine gun fire from Thiepval Spur. The Battalion’s War Diary records that out of 25 Officers and 736 other ranks, just 180 returned. Pearce has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.