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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 506

Three: Lieutenant H. Clayton, 1st Pioneer Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, who was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme


British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut. H Clayton. A.I.F.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Lieut. H Clayton. 1-Pnr. Bn. A.I.F.), together with the recipient's Memorial Plaque 1914-18 (Harry Clayton), traces of lacquer, the V.M. officially re-impressed, good very fine (3)

Harry Clayton was born in August 1886 at Wrexham, the son of Thomas Henry Clayton and his wife Alice, of Tanlliffan Isa, Old Colwyn, North Wales. He was employed by the Robinsons Wood Cutting and Corn Milling Machinery Company in Rochdale before travelling to Hurstville, Sydney, Australia with the intention of building a corn mill. However, with the outbreak of the Great War, he decided to enlist into the Australian Infantry and was posted to the 1st Pioneer Battalion who likely saw a use for his construction skills with timber.

Passing his medical examination at Liverpool on 4 July 1915, Clayton was appointed 2nd Lieutenant on 7 April 1916 and was posted the next month to operations in France and Flanders; it was whilst serving as a Lieutenant with the 1st Pioneer Battalion, 1st Division, near Pozieres, that he was killed in action on 25 July 1916. According to The Battle of the Somme which describes the conditions faced by the Australian Infantry at the time:

'The enemy now bought up heavy masses of artillery, and thenceforward from the 23rd for several weeks, all our new captures were exposed to a terrific bombardment which went on day and night. Casualties in consequence were very heavy, and so was the work entailed. Communications and trenches, dumps of ammunition and stores which had been collected were many times blown to pieces; consolidation, moving down the wounded, bringing up fresh stores, ammunition, reinforcements, and a hundred and one other necessary tasks were only carried out in circumstances of great danger and arduous effort.'

After the war, the grave of Harry Clayton was among those the Army Graves Service was unable to trace; he is therefore commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Somme, France; sold with copied service papers and private research, including details appertaining to his uncle, Air Marshal Sir Gareth Clayton, K.C.B., D.F.C., who later became Chief of Staff, Headquarters Strike Command, Royal Air Force and together with brass Australian Commonwealth Military Forces cap badge, adapted with pin-back and 'Australia' shoulder title.


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£380