He helped save the day, 11 November 1914, Battle of Nonne Boschen

[dante]

Brigadier William Ellis Clark CMG DSO RFA, single 1914 star;

Major Clark was battery commander of 16 battery during the battle of Nonne Boschen 11 November 1914
retired as a Brigadier and became Kent Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Lived Elrnstead House, Chislehurst and resigned his Cmmission as a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent with effect from the 1st October 1965.
Kent County Commissioner of the Boy Scouts and gave the V&A more than 80 pieces of furniture between 1946 and 1968

 

"11th November 1914. in the final act of the battle with the Prussian Guards coming out the North side of Nonne Boschen Wood (just East of Westhoek) they were in rifle range of the artillery lines .. including 41st Brigade Royal Field Artillery.... gunners of the 3 batteries of 41st Brigade engaged and halted the Prussian Guards with guns and rifle fire at 100 yards .. Major Clark and 16th Battery were famously the final line with nothing behind them in front of divisional headquarter"

 

So did the Germans actually have any chance of winning at Nun's Wood?

Certainly! "An injured English-speaking German prisoner being escorted to the rear turned to ask an artillery officer, whose battery he was passing, where the British reserves were. Major Clark just pointed to the guns. The German couldn't believe what he was hearing - there had to be more British reserves; so he asked what troops were behind the gun position. "Divisional HQ", he was told".

"That was it. The Germans had come to within a few hundred meters - and the very few minutes it would have taken to traverse them - from achieving the breakthrough they had intended. Through the British lines at Nun's Wood and they would have had nothing to stop them reaching the Channel ports and cutting off the BEF. With their superior numbers the Germans could then have destroyed that magnificent little army, then the French, winning the war in the west in 1914."

 

Sadly have no idea what happened to the rest of his medals and have been unable to find a photograph of him

 

[dante]

Further to my comment above I do have a picture of two ex officers, one is the Brigadier, but I do not know which one???