Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.M. and Bar group of three awarded to Private J. T. Johnson, Northumberland Fusiliers, who was killed in action on the River Piave, Italy in October 1918

Military Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar (20-190 Pte. J. D. Johnson, 20/Nth’d Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (20-190 Pte., North’d Fus), with card boxes of issue and registered forwarding envelope for the last two, addressed to the recipient’s father, extremely fine (3) £600-800

M.M. London Gazette 28 July 1917.

Bar to M.M. London Gazette 7 October 1918.

John Thomas Johnson, a native of Ryton-on-Tyne, first went to France in the 20th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (The Tyneside Scottish) in 1916 (MIC confirms), but on which date he transferred to the 11th Battalion remains unknown. He was subsequently killed in action on 27 October 1918, the latter Battalion’s War Diary noting the loss of 11 officers and 239 other ranks on this date, following an action on the north bank of the River Piave - most of these men were cut down on the enemy’s wire by enfilading machine-gun fire, command of the Battalion falling to a Lieutenant. Johnson, who was aged 25 years, was buried in the Tezze British Cemetery, north of Venice.