Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. group of three to Captain J. R. Smith, King’s Royal Rifle Corps

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Capt., K.R. Rif. C.); Victory 1914-19 (Capt.) very fine and better (3) £800-900

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

James Rockcliffe Smith was born in Lower Broughton, Salford on 15 January 1883, the son of Robert Vaughan Smith and his wife Harriet Elizabeth. He was educated at J. W. Leathley’s School, Higher Broughton and was on the staff of the Commercial Union Insurance Company. Gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the 16th Battalion K.R.R.C. (recruited from the Church Lads’ Brigade) in September 1914, he served with the Expeditionary Force in France/Flanders from November 1915. He was awarded the M.C. for gallantry in the fighting for Fourneaux Wood in August 1916, suffering gunshot wounds to the right groin and right leg in the action. Returning to France three months later, he was killed in action at Bullecourt on 20 May 1917 while leading his company in action. Having no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

An officer wrote of him, ‘A fine soldier and a born leader of men, who were always ready to follow him anywhere. Like everything else he took in hand, he put his heart and soul into his soldiering and proved a most capable and trustworthy officer, and one who would have gone far had he been spared. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the fighting at High Wood in July 1916. He took a zealous interest in the Church Lads’ Brigade, and was a keen athlete, being Captain of the Broughton Cricket Club and the North Manchester Association Football Club’. Sold with a quantity of copied research.