A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers

Pair: Second Lieutenant D. C. Mason, 3rd Battalion, attached 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers, who was killed in action during the attack on the Goudberg Spur, Passchendaele, on 10 November 1917

British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. D. C. Mason) good very fine (2) £80-£120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the South Wales Borderers.

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Derick Cecil Mason was born in Hapton, Lancashire, on 9 July 1894 and was educated at Burnley Grammar School before commencing work as an ‘Apprentice to Accountant’. He attested for the Royal Army Medical Corps on 26 October 1914, before transferring to the 3rd Battalion, South Wales Borderers on 1 June 1915. He was promoted Acting Corporal on 8 September 1916, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Special Reserve of Officers, attached to the 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers, on 28 February 1917. The 1st Battalion was mostly held in reserve over the spring and summer of 1917, but it was to feature heavily later that year in the latter stages of the Third Battle of Ypres.

In early November 1917, the Third Ypres offensive had degenerated into a struggle for a ridge of high ground near Passchendaele, and the capture of a feature known as the Goudberg Spur was essential to complete the possession of this ridge. On 10 November 1917, the 1st Battalion South Wales Borderers, as part of the 3rd Brigade, was detailed to attack and hold it.
The regimental history describes the difficulties:
‘The men went into action after an exhausting march, the ground was as difficult to consolidate as it was to cross, adequate artillery support had been hard to assure… Zero was at 5:00 a.m. (November 10th) and for an hour before that a barrage was put down on and just behind the German front line. But the difficulties against which the artillery had to contend in that sea of featureless mud almost surpassed those of the infantry; it was hardly wonderful if the barrage was irregular, so that our own men ran into it when the advance started. This caused several casualties… On the right the men got forward better, establishing a post close to Vocation Farm and obtaining touch with the Canadians, while D Company dug in near Virtue Farm. Vox Farm, however, they could not reach, so heavy was the machine gun fire and sniping. Before long, too, hostile counter-attacks developed.’ (The History of the South Wales Borderers 1914-18 by C. T. Atkinson refers).

The attempt was ultimately unsuccessful and extremely costly, resulting in 372 casualties among the battalion’s men, well over two-thirds of those who took part. Three officers were confirmed killed with Second Lieutenant Mason reported missing. His body was never found and in August 1919 it was concluded by the Army Council that he was killed in action on 10 November 1917. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.

Sold together with copied research including the recipient’s Medal Index Card; Short Service and Commission application forms; and a series of correspondence between Mason’s father and the War Office regarding Mason’s uncertain status.