Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private G. Spriggs, 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, who died from wounds received in action near Bois Grenier during the Battle of Armentières on 26 October 1914

1914 Star (6879 Pte. G. Spriggs. 1/Leic: R.); British War and Victory Medals (6879 Pte. R. Spriggs. Leic. R.) nearly extremely fine (3) £200-£240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals.

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George Spriggs was born in 1886 at Market Harborough, Leicestershire and attested for the Leicestershire Regiment at Leicester in 1903. He served in India with the 2nd Battalion from February 1905 and, extending his term of engagement to 12 years, remained there until January 1914 at which time he returned home to England.

Following the outbreak of the Great War, Spriggs served with the 1st Battalion on the Western Front from 9 September 1914, initially in trenches near Vailly, on the Aisne. Having moved forward to Bois Grenier, south of Armentières, on 18 October, his battalion relieved the West Yorkshire Regiment on 21 October at the Chemical Factory at Rue du Bois. Colonel Wylly in the regimental history notes that a report was then received from the Officer Commanding 1st Leicestershire that hostile shelling had compelled the battalion to evacuate a section of the line from just south of the Rue de Bois to Le Quesne and that his men were lying in the open along the railway line. The enemy then gathered in strength and attacked around the Le Quesne Distillery at dawn on 26 October. The regimental history now notes that the Leicester’s line was intact at Rue de Bois to the barricade at the level crossing south of the station and that ‘close hand-to-hand fighting took place throughout the day’.
Casualties between 21 and 26 October were Officers: four killed or mortally wounded, five wounded; other ranks: 47 killed, 134 wounded; 106 missing - the largest number of casualties occurring on 25 October.

Private Spriggs died on 26 October 1914 from wounds received in the above described fighting. He was the son of John and Mary Ann Spriggs, of 22, Bath St., Market Harborough and is buried in Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension, France. He is also commemorated on the following memorials: St. Nicholas’s Churchyard Memorial, Little Bowden, Leicestershire; the Market Harborough Memorial, Leicestershire; St. Hugh’s Church Memorial, Market Harborough, Leicestershire; and the Cottage Hospital War Memorial, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.