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Auction: 17001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 259

A rare Great War 'Suicide Club' member's D.C.M. group of four awarded to Private A. Walker, Coldstream Guards and 4th Guards Machine Gun Regiment: having witnessed two comrades killed in the process of crossing 100 yards of fire swept ground, he undertook the same perilous journey and, by his accurate and gallant work, repulsed an enemy counter-attack

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (1334 Pte. A. Walker, 4/Gds. M.G. Regt.); 1914-15 Star (14333 Pte. A. Walker, C. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals (14333 Pte. A. Walker, C. Gds.), the first with officially corrected surname, generally very fine (4)

Just 12 D.C.Ms were awarded to members of the Guards Machine Gun Regiment.

D.C.M. London Gazette 5 December 1918:

'For conspicuous gallantry. In the course of an enemy counter-attack, it became necessary to send a machine-gun across a gap in a trench about 100 yards long. Although men two who attempted to cross in front of him were killed, he unhesitatingly carried his gun across and mounted it, still under heavy fire. When the counter-attack developed it was repulsed largely through the accuracy and steadiness of his laying. He showed throughout an utter disregard of personal danger.'

Alfred Walker, a native of Birmingham, first went to France as a Private in the Coldstream Guards in November 1915. A member of his regiment's machine-gun company, he was enrolled in the 4th Guards Machine Gun Battalion on its formation in March 1918, a unit subsequently designated the 4th Guards Machine Gun Regiment; see The Suicide Club , Graham Sacker's excellent guide to machine gun units in the Great War, for further details.





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Sold for
£1,400