Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. and ‘Escapers’ Second Award Bar to Warrant Officer Class II O. T. Sharpe, Lincolnshire Regiment, who was also awarded the D.C.M and twice mentioned in despatches.

Military Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar (8166 Cpl. O. T. Sharpe. 2/Linc: R.) contact marks therefore very fine £800-£1,200

D.C.M. London Gazette 1 January 1917, citation published 13 February 1917:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He has carried out many daring and successful patrols. He has at all times set a splendid example.’

M.M. London Gazette 11 November 1916 .

M.M. Second Award Bar London Gazette 30 January 1920.

M.I.D. London Gazettes 1 January 1916 and 15 June 1916.

Oscar Turner Sharpe was born at Newmarket, Cambridgeshire in 1889, and attested for the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1907. On 5 November 1914, he landed in France with the 2nd Battalion following its recall from Bermuda after the outbreak of war (awarded 1914 Star with clasp). As part of the 25th Brigade, 8th Division, they were engaged in March 1915 in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, their first great battle of the war, an under-exploited tactical success, which cost the Battalion 15 officers and 298 other ranks killed or wounded. The Battalion’s next major engagements were at the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915, where Corporal Charles Sharp of the 2nd Lincolns earned the Regiment’s first Victoria Cross of the Great War, and Bois Grenier on 25 September 1915, a diversionary attack coinciding with the Battle of Loos, both of which resulted in significant casualties and noted acts of gallantry.

Sharpe’s first M.M. was published in the London Gazette of 11 November 1916. The lack of a Schedule Number on the M.M index card denotes that this was a retrospective award for 1915, most likely for gallantry at Bois Grenier.

The 2nd Battalion suffered heavy casualties at Ovillers on the Somme on 1 July 1916 and again at Zenith Trench on 23 October 1916. Sharpe’s D.C.M. for daring and successful patrol work was published in the London Gazette on 1 January 1917. He was taken prisoner of war, possibly at St. Quentin on 22 March 1918 or the Aisne on 27 May 1918 but later successfully escaped from captivity and was repatriated on 22 September 1918 (ICRC card confirms) resulting in the award of a Second Award Bar to his Military Medal. This award coming under Army Order 193 and being published in the London Gazette (‘Prisoners of War Gazette’) of 30 January 1920.

He was awarded the Army Long Service & Good Conduct Medal per Army Order 136 of 1926.