Auction Catalogue

17 August 2021

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 191

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17 August 2021

Hammer Price:
£800

Pair: Lieutenant G. P. N. Thompson, 8th (Service) Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who was awarded the 16th (Irish) Division Gallant Conduct Certificate, and was killed in action near Hazebrouck on 4 May 1918

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. G. P. N. Thompson); Memorial Plaque (Gerald Pittis Newman Thompson) in card envelope; Memorial Scroll, ‘Lieut. Gerald Pittis Newman Thompson, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.’, nearly extremely fine (4) £300-£400

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

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Collection

Gerald Pittis Newman Thompson was born in 1898 on the Isle of Wight, the only son of Dr. C. I. and Mrs. Thompson, of Bradley Lodge, Newport, Isle of Wight and the nephew of Mr. Newman Thompson, First Auditor of the Bank of Ireland. He was educated at Aldwick House, Bognor, Epsom and Sandhurst and was commissioned Second Lieutenant from the latter college to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on 19 July 1916. He served on the Western Front with the 8th/9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was awarded Major-General Hickie’s Irish Brigade Certificate for his gallant conduct during 1917.

Having been advanced Lieutenant on 19 January 1918, Thompson was killed in action near Hazebrouck on 4 May 1918 while serving on attachment with the 8th (Service) Battalion, and is buried in Nieppe-Bois (Rue-du-Bois) British Cemetery, Vieux Berquin, France.

Sold together with the recipient’s Irish Brigade Gallant Conduct Certificate (
very good condition), in envelope dated 21 February 1918, and signed by ‘W. B. Hickie’, Major-General, Commanding 16th Irish Division, reading, ‘2nd Lieut. G. P. N. Thompson 8/9th R. Dublin Fusiliers, I have read with much pleasure the reports of your regimental commander and brigade commander regarding your gallant conduct and devotion to duty in the field during 1917 and have ordered your name and deed to be entered in the record of the Irish Division’.

Note: Major General Hickie instituted the 16th (Irish) Division Gallant Conduct Certificate in February 1916, announcing it during an inspection of battalions returning from a period of instruction in the trenches alongside more experienced units. On 17 February, whilst praising the performance of the 9th Royal Munster Fusiliers, he is known to have declared that whenever the name of a man came before him for having performed a meritorious deed he would have the fact recorded “…on a parchment sheet specially prepared in Dublin, so that a heritage worth preserving might be passed onto future generations to the glory of the Irish Brigades in France in 1916.”

Hickie’s parchment certificate was always awarded in addition to, rather than instead of, any other decoration that was awarded. It was produced in two versions. The second type, of which Thompson’s certificate is an example, was awarded from the latter part of 1917 and differs from the first version in that it was additionally inscribed across the top with ‘Everywhere and Always Faithful’, had an added border, and the first letter of the main text was enlarged and decorated with an oak leaf design.

Also sold with a letter to the recipient’s father from the Director of Graves Registration and Enquiries, informing the former of the whereabouts of his son’s grave.