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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 469

Royal Sussex Regiment

'We still kept advancing and it was a lovely sight to see the lads under that terrible hail of lead carrying on just as if they had been on a field day and with our bayonets fixed we drove the Turks off the ridges where they retired into their redoubt, which was very strongly built and also very strongly held.

The ridge which we captured about 12.30 p.m. in the afternoon we held until 3.30 p.m. They were popping away at us by thousands whilst several shells burst close to where I was lying, smothering me in dust and one piece of spent shrapnel dropped about an inch from my arm whilst another piece hit the back of my helmet.

One of our worst enemies was the lack of water, our lips were all cracking and our tongues were parched as it was terribly hot and the crying of the wounded and dying was quite awful.

Our Officers were splendid and their casualties were eighteen including our brave and gallant Colonel who was killed not more than fifteen yards from where I was lying, whilst I was expecting every minute to be my last.'

Private R. H. Simms, 1/4th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, describes the horrors of the First Battle of Gaza; one of his comrades, Ernest Grinsted, won the M.M. on the same occasion.

A Great War First Battle of Gaza M.M. group of three awarded to Sergeant E. F. Grinsted, 1/4th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, who was killed in action in November 1917

Military Medal, G.V.R. (200140 Sjt. E. F. Grimstead, 1/4 R. Suss. R.-T.F.); 1914-15 Star (4-1477 Cpl. E. F. Grinstead, R. Suss. R.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (1477 Sjt. E. F. Grinstead, R. Suss. R.), together with the recipient's Memorial Plaque (Ernest Frank Grinsted), note surname spelling variations, good very fine or better (4)

M.M. London Gazette 20 July 1917.

Ernest Frank Grinsted first saw action in Gallipoli, as a Corporal in the 1/4th Royal Sussex Regiment (Territorials), his unit landing at 'C' Beach in Suvla Bay at midnight on 8 August 1915; the following day, Grinsted and his comrades supported a costly attack on Scimitar Hill. By early October, the Battalion's strength had been reduced to about 200 officers and men, as a result of which it was temporarily amalgamated with the 2/4th Queen's.

As part of 160th Infantry Brigade, the Battalion next fought in the Egypt and Palestine operations, Grinsted winning his M.M. at the First Battle of Gaza on 26 March 1917. It was shortly after the Third Battle - on 16 November - that he was killed in action, aged 24.

The son of William and Emily Grinsted of Amber Field, Slinfold, Horsham, Sussex, his name is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.


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