Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. and Second Award Bar awarded to Sergeant J. Garside, 1/5th Battalion, West Riding Regiment

Military Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar (3594 Pte. J. Garside. 1/5 W. Rid: R.-T.F.) edge bruising, contact marks and polished, otherwise nearly very fine £500-£700

M.M. London Gazette 9 December 1916.

Bar to M.M. London Gazette 17 June 1919.

John Garside was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, on 22 May 1896, and attested for the West Riding Regiment at Huddersfield on 14 December 1914. He disembarked in France with the 1/5th Battalion on 14 April 1915, where they were engaged in the battle of Aubers Ridge the following month. He won the M.M. on the Somme in 1916, a citation being published in a local newspaper, jointly with 4246 Private R. S. Smith of the same regiment:

‘For gallantry near Thiepval on 19th September 1916, in carrying a message from the line to Battalion Headquarters under heavy machine-gun, rifle and shell fire.’

He was promoted to Corporal on 3 May 1917 and to Sergeant on 29 January 1918. He was wounded at the Battle of the Sambre on 7 November 1918, with a gunshot wound to the neck, and it is quite likely that the Bar to his M.M. was awarded for this action, being announced in the War Diary at the end of the same month. Garside was demobilised at the end of March 1919. Sold with detailed research.