Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain C. C. Thompson, 2nd Battalion, sometime attached 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who was killed in action near Ovillers during the Battle of the Somme on 14 July 1916

1914 Star, with clasp (Lieut: C. C. Thompson. R. Innis: Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. C. C. Thompson.) good very fine (3) £300-£400

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

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Cecil Cuthbert Thompson was born in 1890 at Monk Bretton, Barnsley and was educated at Barnsley Grammar School and Reading University. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant (on probation) into the 4th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers from the Reading University College Contingent Officers’ Training Corps on 13 July 1912 and following university he was appointed a master at Handsworth Grammar School, Birmingham, and admitted as a member of the Royal Geographical Society.

Thompson served as a Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 2 November 1914, his battalion occupying trenches near Ploegsteert Wood and participating in several assaults to attempt to recover lost trenches during the month of November. The following year he was promoted Temporary Captain and attached to the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion (15 June 1915).

Captain Thompson was killed in action on 14 July 1916 during the 2nd Battalion’s attack at Ovillers on the Somme. The regimental historian, Sir Frank Fox, records that in the attack, which began on 13 July, 2 companies, co-ordinating with the 17th Highland Light Infantry, gained their objectives but suffered heavy casualties and were forced to withdraw to Bouzincourt the following day.

He was the son of Samuel and Fanny Thompson, of Wakefield, Yorks and the husband of Mary Thompson (nee Ward), of 18, Monmouth Road, Bayswater, London and is buried in Ovillers Military Cemetery, Somme, France. He is also commemorated on a family grave headstone in Barnsley Cemetery which also bears the name of his brother, A. H. Thompson, who fell on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.