dante

My first medal was in 1974, just back from Op Shader (Iraq) 42 years between medals, so 31 years I would say is very possible

Another ebay purchase hidden away a single British war medal to possibly one of the the best known Great war authors; Captain Guy Patterson Chapman OBE MC better know as Guy Chapman (1889-1972), editor, publisher, professor of history and author, Guy Chapman, the son of a wealthy barrister, G. W. Chapman, was born in London in on 11th September 1889. He was educated at Westminster School, Christ Church College (1908-11) and the London School of Economics before becoming a lawyer in 1914. Later that year Chapman married Doris May Bennett at Kensington Register Office. On the outbreak of the First World War, Chapman joined the Royal Fusiliers as a junior officer. He later wrote: "I was loath to go. I had no romantic illusions. I was not eager, or even resigned to self-sacrifice, and my heart gave back no answering throb to thought of England. In fact, I was very much afraid; and again, afraid of being afraid, anxious lest I show it." Chapman was not impressed by the quality of his training: "The ten months' training, which the battalion went through before it reached France, was therefore a compound of enthusiasm and empiricism on the part of the junior subalterns and the other ranks. We listened hopefully to the lectures of general officers who seemed happier talking of Jubulpore than of Ypres. We pondered the jargon of experts, each convinced that his peculiar weapon, machine-gun, rifle, bayonet, or bomb, was the one designed to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion." Chapman arrived on the Western Front in August 1915. He was appalled by the state of the trenches. "The trench was not a trench at all. The bottom may have been two feet below ground level. An enormous breastwork rose in the darkness some ten or more feet high. All about us there was an air of bustle. Men were lifting filled sandbags on to the parapet and beating them into the wall with shovels. Bullets cracked in the darkness. Every now and then a figure would appear on the skyline and drop skillfully on the fire step." Chapman also found the mud a serious problem: "Rain had made our bare trenches a quag, and earth, unsupported by revetments, was beginning to slide to the bottom. We hailed the first frost which momentarily arrested our ruin. Saps filled up and had to be abandoned. The cookhouse disappeared. Dugouts filled up and collapsed. The few duckboards floated away, uncovering sump-pits into which the uncharted wanderer fell, his oaths stifled by a brownish stinking fluid." In the summer of 1916 Chapman took part in the Battle of the Somme. He found that the morale of his men suffered after the offensive failed to break-through the German front-line: "The men, though docile, willing, and biddable, were tired beyond hope. They lived from hand to mouth, expecting nothing, and so disappointed nowhere. They were no longer decoyed by the vociferous patriotism of the newspapers. They no longer believed in the purity of politicians or the sacrifices of profiteers. They were fed up with England as they were with France and Belgium. The best they could count on was a blighty, a little breathing space to stretch their legs and fill their lungs with sweet air." After surviving the Battle of Arras in 1917, Chapman was badly affected by a mustard-gas attack. "The Boche dropped half a dozen mustard-gas shells round headquarters. I had heard them, but since I had smelt nothing had neglected to put on my gas-mask. Now my eyes had begun to run, and as soon as I opened them fountains of water gushed down my cheeks. Doctor Toulson washed them and washed them. It was no use. The flood continued." After treatment he returned to the Western Front and was still there when the Armistice was signed in 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross in December 1919: For conspicuous gallantry and leadership near Ghissignies, on 4th November, 1918. When the battalion was going through Gihissignies in support of the attack, information was received that the left company of the leading battalion had been held up. Under heavy shell fire he went forward to reconnoitre, and found that the supporting battalion appeared likely to become prematurely involved in the fighting. By his energy and initiative in taking command of the situation this was prevented. Chapman was demobilised in February 1920, with the rank of major. After divorcing his wife he got a job as manager for a new London branch of an Irish publishing firm, Chapman and Dodd, in Denmark Street, Soho. In January 1924 the writer, Storm Jameson, came to the office. Chapman later commented: "She was wearing a heavy coat over a faded pink knitted dress, and a hat which did not suit her, and she smiled at me. She was rather lovely, with long cool grubby fingers, and she held herself badly: she made me think of a well-bred foal, unbroken and enchantingly awkward. Something she said at that first meeting, I forget what, made me laugh with pure pleasure." They soon began a relationship. The couple married on 1st February 1926. Later she wrote: "We went to places, obscure ruined monasteries, small provincial art galleries, the house in which a dead philosopher spent his life, salt marshes, trout streams, some turn in a rough nameless road which offered a view of a smiling valley and a line of hills, because, although he had not seen them, he knew they were there. He made all other company a little dull." Chapman became a university lecturer and eventually became Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds (1945-53). He published several books including an account of his wartime experiences, A Passionate Prodigality (1933). He also edited two important collections of prose from the war, Fifty Amazing Stories Of The Great War (1936) and Vain Glory (1937). Other books by Guy Chapman include Culture and Survival (1940), Beckford (1952), The Dreyfus Trials (1955), The Third Republic of France (1962) and Why France Collapsed (1968). After his death on 30th June 1972, his wife, Storm Jameson, edited A Kind of Survivor (1975), a selection of Chapman's autobiographical writings.

In 1953 he got the MBE Major (Quartermaster) John Henry Cornelius HAWKINS (163586),. Royal Artillery

Yes all sold and in the US....collection (and house contents!) on the high seas as we speak...offer in on a house as soon as possible will post (also the new and hopefully enlarged study !!!

The grave just has his name...here is a picture of the Princess

The badge in wear

Early RAF shoulder eagle circa 1918

Originally wings were going to be placed there as they were linked to flying and the RAF then they were placed on the arm when it was decided they were trade badges, during the war SF and SOE placed them above medal ribbons to denote a combat jump.

I would say so

Nice one, hard to find

What a great group, can you show the rest?

Chris, great pieces

Thank you Gentleman, I was talking to a colleague about them today and how after all these years you can bring there lives back....you can get quite sentimental about this stuff sometimes....its is a great hobby....

The medal I purchased by mistake: Captain Hugh Forrest RAMC, a pre-war territorial who was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD) in 1928, he served with the Lowland Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance on board the SS Arcadian landing at Cape Helles Gallipoli 29/09/1915 attached to the 52nd (Lowland) Division until 30 December when it was evacuated to Mudros. He remained attached to 52nd (Lowland) Division serving in Palestine and France. In 1919 he joined the Merchant Navy as a Surgeon serving though out WW2 including the Cunard White Star “Northumberland” in 1944 On June 23 1953 in the port of Beira Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) Dr Forrest was on duty on board the SS Clan Sutherland when the Norwegian tanker Fenheim blew up and spread gasoline on the water which then caught fire and spread to the Fenheim and four other ships including the Clan Sutherland, during this fire in which 50 stevedores died, Dr Forrest was badly burnt fighting the fire and died in Beira hospital, he was buried at sea. I would like to think it was all for a reason.........

Single 1915 star to Major William Sylvester Crosthwait, served on the Hospital Ship SS Braemar Castle and during the Gallipoli landings in the Hospital ship Assaye, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Royal Army Medical Corps. While on the Braemar Castle as senior medical officer he was mentioned in despatches 1918 as the officer who was in charge of the life boats when the ship hit a mine “Perhaps the best testimony to the behaviour of those on board was contained in a letter from Lieutenant‑Colonel J. C. B. Statham, R.A.M.C., to Lord Methuen, the Governor of Malta, dated December 4th, 1916, from Intarfa Hospital. All the patients, except those actually killed by the explosion, were speedily got into the ship's boats, the result being due, as Colonel Statham said, not only to the splendid handling of the ship by the com­mander and crew, but also to the efforts of the senior medical officer, Major W. S. Crosthwait, R.A.M.C., who had been in charge of the boat drill preparations, and whose efforts had largely secured that, when the emergency actually occurred, there was no panic whatsoever. The patients were landed at Syra, the Greek and French hospitals being placed at their disposal as well as the French convent school”. He went on to be a Surgeon for the P&O Company and a Civil Surgeon, Hospital Ship Princes of Wales

Ebay is a for many of us a chance to buy a piece of history but sometimes that "buy in now" button can cause a sense of dread....especially when you buy the wrong medal.....I had been watching a single 1915 Star to an RAMC doctor and when I saw the price had been reduced pressed that "buy in now" button, only to realise that it was the wrong medal.....wanting the other one (same dealer) I then bought the other one (the one I wanted),,,,,I went to bed thinking how stupid I was spending money I could ill afford................the first medal

Thanks Brett, Peter for your comments, what a wonderful group it would be all together, just need a photo of the gallant Doctor!!

Single British war medal "E.C. Long" French Red Cross (Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois). Colonial Doctor and Dinosaur hunter Edward Charles Long was the son of George Long.He married Hilda Charlotte Harrison, daughter of Edward Francis Harrison and Lilian Young Reily, on 20 July 1899. Edward died on 28 August 1940. He was Companion, Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) and Principal Medical Officer Basutoland He lived Kingston, Hampshire Edward C. Long, medical practitioner, followed various commercial pursuits until the age of 21, when he came to South Africa to relieve the symptoms of tuberculosis. After private study he matriculated through the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1882. Upon his return to England he studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital and, after winning two gold medals and several scholarships and prizes, qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS, England) and a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London (LRCP) in 1889. He returned to South Africa that same year to join the Basutoland Medical Service, of which he was the principal medical officer by 1896, stationed in Maseru. He remained in this post until at least 1906. On 15 April 1890 he was licensed to practise medicine in the Orange Free State, and on 8 July 1898 to practise in the Cape Colony. He was a member of the (second) South African Medical Association and from July 1896 or earlier to at least April 1897 edited the Notes section of the South African Medical Journal (second series). In 1899 he married Hilda C. Harrison, but they had no children. In 1904 Dr Long compiled notes on the geology of Lesotho. He was awarded a no bar Queens South Africa medal for his service in the Basutoland civil service during the South African War During the next year he presented dinosaurian remains to the South African Museum in Cape Town. That same year he became a member of the South African Philosophical Society, but remained a member for only a year or two. By 1906 he had also joined the Geological Society of South Africa, and by 1910 the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. He was then still living in Maseru. In 1911 he visited the leper hospital at Sydenham [presumably the suburb of London]. During World War I (1914-1918) he served with the French Red Cross in France (1916), serving with the Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois. Hôpital Temporaire d’Arc-en-Barrois was a voluntary civilian British hospital unit established in the Château d'Arc-en-Barrois, Haute-Marne, France, for the aid of wounded French soldiers in the Great War. Founded in January 1915 under approval of the Anglo-French Hospital Committee of the British Red Cross Society, London, the hospital of 110 beds was conducted under military command of the French army's Service de Santé. The hospital's first military casualties arrived on 27 January 1915 from the Argonne Forest battle front. In February 1915 the regional Service de Santé requested an expansion of hospital services and a convalescent hospital was established in the vacant village hospice building, bringing the total number of beds to 180. Located sixty miles or more to the rear of the war's entrenched front lines, Hôpital Temporaire supported the casualties from Verdun (1916) and the Meuse-Argonne Campaign (1918). Throughout the war wounded soldiers arrived in Haute-Marne via hospital train through Latrecey-Ormoy-sur-Aube, a remote station located 11 miles from Arc-en-Barrois, and were transported to the château aboard Hôpital Temporaire's small motor ambulance fleet. Wounded and sick soldiers were attended in hospital by a staff of female trained nurses, a small contingent of surgeons and medical students and female auxiliary hospital staff provided by the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.). Hôpital Temporaire's voluntary hospital personnel included a significant number of writers, poets, artists and illustrators. Kathleen Scott, the Rodin-trained sculptress and widow of the Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, organized and led the hospital's small auto ambulance service in early 1915. Henry Tonks, painter, Slade Art School Professor and trained physician was among the hospital's founding staff. Tonks served between January and April 1915 as hospital anaesthetist and ward physician. John Masefield, Britain's future Poet Laureate, served a six week term as a volunteer orderly during the spring of 1915. The English poet Laurence Binyon, volunteered as a hospital orderly during 1915 and 1916. His ward experiences among wounded French soldiers inspired his poems, "Fetching the Wounded", "The Distant Guns", "Men of Verdun", and "La Patrie". That same year Dr Long published a paper on "An analysis of 300 consecutive laparotomies at Maseru" in the South African Medical Record (Vol. 14, pp. 132-135). In 1921 he was honoured by the British government as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). He retired in 1922 after 32 years service

Great war pair, to Captain, later Colonel Allan Monkhouse, M.I.E.E., A.M.I.Mech.E , Attached British Intelligence in Russia , noted engineer and Mi6 agent Born in New Zealand he went to Russia before the great war. Great war 1914-18 On the on the outbreak of WW1 he was instructed to remain in Russia by the British Government via the British Embassy to remain in Russia to continue with his work in Munitions, staying on after the fall of the Tsar. In Spring 1917 he was commissioned by the Kerensky Russian Provisional government into the Militia during the October Revolution: In December 1917, he was arrested by the communists and sentenced to Death by the revolutionary court for "wrecking" munitions production, reprieved when evidence was found supporting his claim that he was not guilty. "Decree No 1 on 24 November 1917 provided for the complete abolition of the courts, Procuracy, Bar and law schools, and the introduction of Revolutionary Tribunals staffed by lay assessors. They dispensed their own ideas of justice in an atmosphere of complete procedural informality—if those words can be stretched to cover such strange meetings. We have a description of one such trial in Moscow from a New Zealander, Allan Monkhouse, who was accused in early 1918 of stealing British-delivered munitions from the Soviets. “The Court consisted of one Jewish lawyer, a political agitator and two workmen, one of whom I recognised as an illiterate plumber who had formerly been in my employ. Prisoner, judges and witnesses sat round a rough table with a torn, green-baize cover. The room was full of tobacco smoke. The president, a glass of tea in one hand, and a thick slice of black bread spread with red caviar in the other hand, addressed me with his mouth so full that I could hardly distinguish his words. My case dragged on until the late evening. In those days’ punishment for crimes of this nature was immediate execution and, though I was entirely innocent of the charges against me, nevertheless my case went badly, and I shall always remember watching the sun set over the Kremlin Towers and thinking to myself that in all probability it was the last time I should see it.” After the trail in March 1918 he escape from Russia escaped to Vladivostok via Canada Russian Intervention 1918-19 On arriving in Canada in April 1918 he Helped recruit and train, 39th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, (Jewish Legion) raised at Fort Edward, Nova Scotia, which was made up almost entirely of Russian Jews who were resident in the United States and Canada. Documents online not him as US resident, enlisting in the British army (Officer Training Corps) 7th June 1918 and Returning to England July 1918 Debriefed by Mi5 on his escape and the situation in Russia, he was formally enlisted into the British army Inn of Court OTC, acting Sgt based at Berkenstead. On the first of October 1918 he deployed to Russia as acting Sgt Inns of Court attached to British Military Intelligence( MI1c, forerunner of MI6) under the cover as an Interpreter unit of the Royal Engineers Railway Operating Division on armoured trains. North Russian Expeditionary Force. He was formally commissioned on the 23 January 1919 as a 2nd Lieutenant, Interpreter attached Military Intelligence attached to unit of the Royal Engineers Railway Operating Division armoured trains. On the 1st June 1919 he was promoted acting Captain, He resigned his commission on completing his service on the 22 October 1919 as 2nd Lt (General List) For his service in Russia he was awarded the Imperial Russian Order of St. Anne; Third Class In 1925 Monkhouse was sent back to Russia to work at the Moscow Office of the British electrical-engineering concern of Metropolitan-Vickers. The Metrovik trial, 1933 The Trial of the Vickers Engineers Around 9:30 P.M on the night of March 11, 1933, the Soviet Government struck its final blow at the remnants of the Torgprom conspiracy. OGPU agents in Moscow arrested six British engineers and ten Russians, all employees of the Moscow Office of the British electrical-engineering concern of Metropolitan-Vickers. The British subjects and their Russian associates were charged with having carried on espionage and sabotage in the Soviet Union on behalf of the British Intelligence Service. The chief Vickers representative in Moscow had been a man named Captain C. S. Richards. He had hurriedly left for England just before the arrests. Richards had been a British intelligence officer Russia since 1917 when, as captain of an Intelligence Service detachment, he took part in the anti-Soviet intrigues which preceded the Allied occupation of Archangel. " Under Richards's direction, the Moscow Office of Metro-Vickers had subsequently become the center of British secret service operations in Russia. Among the British "technicians" arrested by the Soviet authorities in Moscow was one of Captain Richards's former associates in the Archangel expedition, Allan Monkhouse, who served as Richards's second-in-command. Monkhouse, while pleading not guilty to the current charges, admitted that he had formerly been associated with Richards. He testified: - "Mr. Richards I met in 1917 in Moscow and later on in Archangel, where he, as I confirm, occupied the position of captain of the Intelligence Service. It is known to me that Mr. Richards was in Moscow in April or May 1918. I do not know for what he came to Moscow but I know from what he told me that he secretly crossed the frontier to Finland at that time. In 1923 he was appointed a director of the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Export Company. In the same year he went to Moscow for negotiations about supplying of equipment". From various books and online documents it was noted that Monkhouse, who had served as an intelligence officer on the Archangel Expedition in World War I, was convicted of bribery and deported, SIS (Mi6) was particularly concerned about the prosecution because Monkhouse was indeed a valued SIS source, and the organization had set great store on what was termed “natural cover,” or utilizing people who had a genuine reason for visiting the Soviet Union. The Metro-Vickers arrests were not just an embarrassing disincentive for others to cooperate with SIS, but the whole episode was likely to inhibit their employers from participating in what was presented as a patriotic and relatively risk-free activity. Much depended upon what evidence of espionage emerged during the trial. All our spying operations on U.S.S.R. territory are directed by the British Intelligence Service, through their agent, C. S. Richards, who occupies the position of Managing Director of the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Export Company, Ltd. Spying operations on U.S.S.R. territory were directed by myself and Monkhouse, representatives of the above-mentioned British firm, who are contractors, by official agreements, to the Soviet Government, for the supply of turbines and electrical equipment and the furnishing of technical aid agreement. On the instructions of C. S. Richards given to me this end, British personnel were gradually drawn into the spying organization after their arrival on U.S.S.R. territory and instructed as to the information required. The Vickers "engineer" William MacDonald also admitted the charges and stated: - The leader of the reconnaissance work in the U.S.S.R. disguised under the shield of Metropolitan-Vickers was Mr. Thornton, who worked in Moscow as chief erecting engineer. The head of the representation was Mr. Monkhouse who also took part in this illegal work of Mr. Thornton. The assistant of Mr. Thornton for travelling purposes and his associate in the espionage work was engineer Cushny, officer of the British army, now an engineer of the firm Metropolitan-Vickers. This is the main group of reconnaissance workers which did the espionage work in the U.S.S.R. The arrest of these Vickers "engineers" was the occasion for an immediate storm of anti-Soviet protest in Britain. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, without waiting to hear the charges and evidence in the case, categorically, declared that the British subjects who had been arrested were absolutely innocent. Tory members of Parliament once again demanded severance of all commercial and diplomatic relations with Moscow. The British Ambassador to Soviet Russia, Sir Esmond Ovey, a friend of Sir Henri Deterding, stormed into the Soviet Foreign Office in Moscow and told Maxim Litvinov that the prisoners must be immediately released without trial in order to avoid "grave consequences to our mutual relations." The "James Bond" Link While working for Reuters in Moscow, Robin was sent a new guy and told to show him the ropes. The new guy was Ian Fleming. Fleming was sent to Moscow by the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to monitor developments in the espionage/sabotage" Metro-Vickers trial. Nigel West's Historical Dictionary of Ian Fleming's World of Intelligence: Fact and Fiction. West writes: "Fleming’s SIS connections dated back to his first assignment for Reuters, when he traveled to Moscow by train in April 1933 to cover the famous Metropolitan-Vickers trial in which a British engineer, Allan Monkhouse, and six other Britons were accused of sabotage and espionage. Metro-Vickers had secured a contract to design and build a power grid across Russia to assist in Joseph Stalin’s economic plan to industrialize the country, but the group of British engineers were suspected of having links to British intelligence and of having engaged in sabotage." Verdict On April 18 1933, the Soviet Supreme Court handed down its verdict. With one exception all the Russian accomplices were found guilty and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to ten years. The British subject, Albert Gregory, was acquitted on the grounds that the evidence against him was insufficient. The other five British engineers were found guilty. Monkhouse, Nordwall and Cushny were ordered to be deported from the Soviet Union. Leslie Thornton and William MacDonald were sentenced respectively to two and three years' imprisonment. WW2 We next come across Allen Monkhouse in 1939 as a 2nd Lt acting Lieutenant Colonel, temporary Colonel (General List) working under Lord Beaverbrook at the Ministry of Supply. In 1941 he was as an assistant to Lord Beaverbrook, head of the British mission to Moscow, no other information as yet has been found, nor it appears did he receive any awards. He should have been awarded the Defence and War medal India After the war he was called to India, and convinced Prime Minister Nehru to back, against opposition, that India's water power could be increased twelve-fold, and then his claim that the micro-generator he had designed could bring electricity across the Himalayas. After apparent rejection, he installed the first thirty. In 2014 an estimated 105,000 villages are served by such micro-generators across the width of the Himalayas. His Biography was written in 2014 "Electrifying New Zealand, Russia and India: The three lives of engineer Alan Monkhouse" by Richard Sorabji

WW2 In 1939 George re-enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Temporary Flight Lieutenant, Special Duties, he appears on the Special Operations Executive (SOE): Personnel Files having failed to become a staff officer George Victor COTTAM - born 02.07.1898 Special Operations Executive: Personnel Files (PF Series). George Victor COTTAM born 02.07.1898. Collection: Records of Special Operations Executive Date range: 01 January 1939 - 31 December 1946 Reference: HS 9/360/3 Subjects: Intelligence He is noted that during while serving in RAF intelligence (overseas) he was accused of ‘disseminating communism during his lectures’ but was found to be ‘merely garrulous and a bore but not subversive’ He died in 1986 in Nottingham Note: If anyone is aware of his WW2 service specially where he served I would be very grateful

Single WW1 Victory medal to George Victor Cottam Royal Flying Corps George Victor Cottam was born in Narva, Estonia (Then part of Russia ) on the 2nd July 1898 . The son of a mill manager for the Krenholm (Kreenholm/Narva) Manufacturing Company. His father George Cottam from Oldham was in charge of the large estate of Narva on which there was a large efficient hospital, a fever hospital, a maternity hospital, 2 English churches. He was also in charge of the Police Force and the running of the Police Station and the general care and attention of all the English factories were his sole charge and responsibility. The Russian Government awarded George the elder The Stanislav Order of Zeal - a very high honour for any foreigner to receive. He also became the British Vice Consul in Russia. Narva is in the north west of Russia, 86 miles south west of St Petersburg. Cotton is manufactured also the fisheries Salmon and Lamprey were other valuable industry. Narva is on the estuary of the River Narova making the town appear live Venice in some parts. LIFE IN NARVA Life in Narva was very grand for all the English families. They lived altogether on a large estate. They all lived in separate houses, one for each family. Each family had their own servants; there were maids, a cook, and a coachman to drive them about in the horse drawn sleigh in winter and carriages in summer. None of the English families had anything to do but live a complete life of luxury. The large estate was completely self supporting with a communal bakers and washhouse (for laundry etc); they had their own church and churchyard, a busy working farm, which supplied the whole estate. The farm provided fruit and vegetables, cows for milk, butter and cheese, hens, pigs and sheep. Also a dressmaker visited all the families regularly to repair and make clothes. The houses were heated by wood fed stoves built of tiles to radiate the heat back into the room. As there were no open fires which some of the English found there was something missing. The kitchens were very large where the main heating came from Cooking was done by very large ovens, with deep backs. The wood was always stacked at one side of the kitchen. The outer doors and windows were double as in the winter it was the habit to place cotton wool between the two windows to prevent even the slightest of draughts. Winter transport for months on end was horse drawn sleigh. Clothing was suited to the weather padded coats and cloaks with large fur collars, fur hats and ear caps. To protect them from frost bite and Russian type boots which we all know and wear today. Winter was long, hard and very bitter then suddenly within only a week. Spring and fur coats were put away and cotton dresses were worn throughout the summer which was consistent and hot. Summer dresses were worn until the autumn, which was short then it was winter again. UNREST IN RUSSIA Unrest in Russia had been simmering for a long time then the Revolution broke out and the British embassy could no longer give protection to the English families. It was decided that the women and children should leave Russia. The English families were aware for a long time of the unrest and they were warned continually not to get into any arguments about the political situation because the British Embassy could not take responsibility for them. It was a great shock to all the English that they would have to leave. And from living a life of luxury very suddenly overnight they were all now refugees, fleeing the Country they had grown to love. Papers were hurriedly gathered together. Alice collected as much as she could get I.e. Treasures, silver etc. Reluctantly Alice and her two daughters, including all the other women said their farewells to their husbands (who had to stay behind and continue to manage the Cotton Mills.) The first stage of their journey was easy compared to the second and third stage. Alice and her daughters boarded a train, (along with all the other women) and taken 86 miles to St Petersburg. Hilda was now 12 years old and Hannah was 8. After they arrived in St Petersburg, they were told to get on a train which would take them to the fishing port of Archangel. The train was packed with refugees. Whole families lived in small compartments. There was very little in the way of sanitary facilities. Mothers with small children had to empty potties out of the train windows. Older children were sent along the train to the engine where there was the only source of hot water for washing etc, and filling tea pots to make a hot drink. There was no luxury of a Restaurant Car so when the train stopped at various stations they obtained a ticket for a meal at the station restaurant. Where they was no service and knowing a train was due to arrive the Russian peasants had fled sometime before afraid of the Russian soldiers so all they left was very large containers of soup and other unappetising concoctions from which they were all expected to ladle and eat and no one could fancy any of it. But they had to try to eat to keep going until the next stop at the next station where the same unappetising food awaited them again. To help pass the time in such appalling cramped conditions, the women told the children to pick bugs and fleas off each other! Between St Petersburg and Archangel the women and children were travelling for 3 weeks. Also at many of the stations along the way the English families hardly dare speak to the officers who patrolled the station platforms as they didn't know who were friends or enemies. Alice managed to keep a good eye on her daughters. It was extremely difficult for her and the other women with young children. All the women hoped the children wouldn't say anything to the officers while the train was stopped, and very often searched. On reaching Archangel, Alice had to choose between 2 boats which would take her, hopefully back home. One was a cattle boat and the other was a fishing boat. Both these boats were very small. Alice managed to get onto a small fishing boat. Another wait was upon them as all the fishing boats had to sail in groups to give protection to each other because of the icebergs and also the 1914-18 war was on. Alice and her daughters were lucky as their boat and all the other fishing boats were soon full and so they were able to leave Archangel on one of the first convoys of ships. Not having very good navigation instruments the convoy of ships sailed further north than they expected hoping to arrive at their first port of call in Iceland. Unfortunately they missed Iceland completely and sailed further north and were more than a little surprised to find they had landed in Greenland. Two other fishing boats in the same convoy were sunk by Icebergs and all were lost at sea. After a short stay in Greenland all the refugees took another fishing boat and with better navigation they set sail and finally arrived at Scrabster in the north of Scotland. During their long sea voyage the girls could remember how light it was throughout the day and night. Sailing so far north they recalled and my Mum often told us of the Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun and how beautiful it was. After arriving in Scrabster they sailed on through the Caledonian Canal to Liverpool. On reaching Liverpool they made their way to Easingwold in Yorkshire where Alice's sister, Sally (Sarah) now lived with her husband, Joshua French, and their daughter Nancy. Alice, Hilda and Hannah lived with her sister and family for about 18 months. During this time Alice was constantly worried about her husband, Joseph whom she didn't know whether he was alive or dead. He was very much alive and by this time he was trying to escape. It was decided that the English Men should try to leave Russia overland. Joseph had many tricky times trying to escape. First with his brother, James and many of the other English, hid in a cattle truck but they were soon caught as they didn't realise the cattle weren't been taken far enough out of Russia. The second time they hid in a bread van and at each stop at the various towns, they hid in the ditches, sometimes sleeping rough for nights' on end. This also proved fruitless as again they were caught. This second attempt the men had the terrible feeling that someone had informed the Russian Anarchists of their route on how they were trying to return to England. They were placed under house arrest. Their final chance came when some sheep were being moved so they hid in a sheep truck for many miles. At each checkpoint they had to bleat like sheep and hope and pray the truck wouldn't be searched. After leaving the borders of Russia, the men were still afraid, because each time they were stopped they had great difficulty explaining who they were. As they could all speak Russian, they were all dressed like Russians, with beards and long padded coats. During their journey south from Harpenda to Oslo the men were arrested by army soldiers and were put into prison and had all their papers taken from them. After many days of uncertainty, much to their great surprise the men were finally released, given back their papers, and then helped by the army soldiers on the rest of their journey to Bergen where they were advised to cross the North Sea when it was rough, to avoid mines. This must have been very unpleasant, but finally they reached Newcastle. Finally Joseph reached Easingwold during the night and Alice woke her daughters for a happy reunion of their Father and husband. George Cottam and his wife, Lizzie and Mary Cottam, James' wife was the very last English to leave Narva, sailing direct from Narva, on a fishing boat to Bergen and on to Newcastle. George and his wife lived in Southport where he died in July 1921 and his wife died in 1925. After a short time living in Easingwold Joseph returned to the cotton industry. This time to Monton Mill, Eccles." George Victor Cottam had enlisted in the RFC while his family were still in Russia having been educated at Rossall school, Nr Fleetwood having previously been a border at “Bowdon College”, based at College House on South Downs Road. He joined the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve in July 1916 initially training at Christ’s Church, Oxford and then at Beaulieu. He joined 23 sqn in France flying FE2bs in December 1916 The squadron moved to France on 16 March 1916 flying FE2b two-seat pusher fighters. The squadron used the FE2b on close-escort duties and to fly standing patrols to engage hostile aircraft wherever they could be found, helping to establish air superiority in the build-up to the Battle of the Somme. By the end of the year the "Fee" was obsolete, and the Squadron started to received Spad S.VII single-seat fighters in February 1917, with its last F.E.2s in April 1917. 23 Squadron flew its SPADs both on offensive fighter patrols over the front and low-level strafing attacks against German troops.] In December 1917 it replaced its SPAD S.VII with the more powerful and heavier armed Spad S.XIII.He returned to the UK in February 1917 suffering from fainting fits. He was then posted to No 1 school of aeronautics as an interpreter for Russian pilots on the 23 March 1917 The No 1 School of Military Aeronautics was a World War I training school for the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), based in Reading, England. It was formed in 1915 as an instructors college - but expanded in 1916 into a full RFC training school. In 1917 technical skills were separated and moved to a nearby airfield, Coley Park, as the School of Technical Training. All training at the school was on the ground; ranging from theoretical subjects through to practical training (e.g. taxiing and artillery observation). He then went on to serve with No. 4 Reserve Squadron Farnborough 2nd May 1917, No. 17 Training Squadron 18th June 1917, No 6 TS See No 32 TDS; nucleus of No 89 Sqn at Catterick on 19TH December 1917 On 25/7/1918 he joined 219 Sqn guarding the Thames Estuary. Unemployed list 23/1/1919. Post war he worked for Lewis, Lloyd & co as a cotton salesman.

Possible line of enquiry would be that he may have served with either the Royal Marine special police reserve or Admiralty police, most likely based at RNAS Culdrose,

Single broken British WW1 victory medal!! Captain James D'Orsay Murray (January 22, 1874 - January 22, 1946) Veteran of the Spanish American war and the blockade of Cuba, Great War British Army and Nationalist speaker for the America First Committee. He was also associated with the Christian American Guards. Served as a Landsman with 1st Naval Battalion (New York Naval Militia) as a with the USS Yankee (Second division) from the April 28 - Sept. 2, 1898, Cuban Blockade. The U.S.S. Yankee was originally built as the passenger liner El Norteas. She was acquired by the United States Navy in 1898 and commissioned as an auxiliary cruiser and fitted with (10) 5-inch guns, (6) 6 pounders and 2 Colt machine guns. On May 29, 1898 Yankee put to sea with orders to join the fleet off Cuba. On June 6th Yankee duelled shore batteries off Santiago. On June 7th she participated in a cable cutting incursion at Guantanamo Bay. In company of the USS Marblehead, Yankee engaged two Spanish gunboats Alvarado and Sandoval, putting them to flight. Yankee and Marblehead then turned their fire toward shore silencing the fort at Caimanera. On June 13th Yankee engaged the Spanish gunboats Diego Velazquez and Lince, putting them both to flight. It also engaged the Sanbanilla Shore Battery before returning to blockade duty off Cienfuegos. Awarded the Sampson Medal (clasps USS Yankee), West Indies Campaign medal and New York State Spanish War medal In 1914 he was living in Italy as an owner of a vineyard at the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In 1915 he joined the American Volunteer Motor-Ambulance Corps attached to the British Red Cross (March to May 1915), he was initially an ambulance driver/Chauffeur in Doullens France in the Department of the Somme (US Passport Number 2468, Washington) and then Section Seven, Formation Norton-Harjes. I can only find a Jack D Murray on the BRC medal roll, also possible he was also awarded the French Victory medal as the Ambulance unit was attached to the French Army. Commissioned British Army as 2nd Lieutenant Royal Field Artillery, Special Reserve, 7 August 1915, Staff Lieutenant, Royal Artillery, 25th Division, 1916 From 7 January 1917 to July 1917 served with No. 2 Section, 29th Division Ammunition . Column RFA (Then hospitalised) Promoted Lieutenant, RFA SR on 1 July 1917, Captain Murray served first on the staff of General Burney, then as liaison officer on the staff of Lord Allenby from 7 Sept 1918 to sometime in 1919. As well as the 1914/5 star British War medal and Victory, he was awarded an Italian Order Of The Crown 5th Class which was Gazetted in 1919 and Mentioned in General Allenby's Despatches in the London Gazette of 12 Jan 1920 for services with the Egyptian Expeditionary Forces. Nationalist speaker for the America First Committee and supporter of Mussolini and Hitler and associated with the Christian American Guard, created in September 1940,it was not only against entry into the war. It also opposed aid. Its program was simple. Since the United States, if properly armed, was impregnable against German attack, there was no reason to help England. Aid would not only fatally weaken America‘s own defences. It would also draw the country into the conflict. The leaders of the AFC claimed they were motivated by concern for American lives. For some, this was no doubt true. For others, humanitarian rhetoric hid different motives. Many joined the AFC as a way of attacking President Roosevelt and the New Deal. It was dissolved on the 10th December 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. At its peak, America First claimed 800,000 dues-paying members in 650 chapters, located mostly in a 300-mile radius of Chicago. “At the meeting of this organization held on Saturday, November 8th, Captain James D'Orsay Murray, a speaker for the America First Committee , was the main attraction. His audience cheered when he gave the Nazi outstretched arm salute and described the customary handshake greeting as a sign of weakness. He praised Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and referred to Winston Churchill as a drunkard who would be lynched by the people of France if they could get their hands on him. He called President Roosevelt a forger, charging that the secret Nazi Map showing Germany’s intention with regard to South America was a fake. He offered old worn-out Nazi propaganda stories such as the claim that Athenia was suck by the British. He planted the seed of defeatism by claiming that Germany is merely prolonging the agony. Noble, chairman of the meeting, went even further in his praise of Hitler’s New Order and condemnation of the President. He charged that President Roosevelt was responsible for the murder of Huey Long.” Christian American Guards was a California-based front organization for the German American Bund. The group was organised in November 1941. The group was formerly known as the American Guard. Why someone who had volunteered and served in the British army in the great war would take this stand is unknown. He died in 1946 aged 72 at Los Angeles California, Captain James D'Orsay Murray is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery as a veteran of the Spanish American War

Nice one Chris, keep the pictures coming

Quick trip to town and a visit to the local junk shop, single WW1 victory medal all by its self for £10....couple of hours on the computer we have the attached