Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War 1918 ‘Hill 63 - Ypres’ M.M. awarded to Corporal M. Murphy, Leinster Regiment

Military Medal, G.V.R. (18355 Cpl. M. Murphy. 2/Lein: R.) nearly very fine £300-£400

M.M. London Gazette 11 February 1919.

Michael Murphy served during the Great War with the 2nd Battalion, Leinster Regiment on the Western Front. He was awarded the M.M. for his gallantry during the attack on Hill 63, Ypres, 4 September 1918. (Battalion War Diary refers)

The morning of the latter date, ‘gave the 2nd Leinster Regiment the opportunity of showing the division [29th] what it was capable of. With the 2nd Hampshire Regiment it carried Hill 63, the key position held by the Germans. Barbed-wire entanglements, over fifty yards in depth were encountered and overcome. Within three quarters of an hour the whole hill was in our possession - over eighty prisoners, numerous mortars and machine guns falling there to the Battalion, and the feat called forth a special congratulatory wire from the Second Army commander in which the capture of Hill 63 was described as ‘of the utmost importance and brilliantly carried out.’ (The History of the Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment, Vol. II, refers)