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Auction: 19003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 334

(x) A Great War M.C. group of five awarded to Captain L. St. G. Wilkinson, Manchester Regiment, attached Machine Gun Corps, who later served as Borough Engineer and Surveyor at Wallasey, Merseyside

Military Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. L. St. G. Wilkinson. Manch. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. L. St. G. Wilkinson.); Jubilee 1935, light contact marks, otherwise good very fine (5)

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

Lionel St. George Wilkinson was born on 29 March 1886 at 117 Rochdale Road, Harpurhey, the son of James Bates Wilkinson. Educated at Oldham Hulme Grammar School and Manchester University, he graduated BSc Engineering in 1907 and MSc in 1910. On gaining his first degree, Wilkinson entered the office of the Borough Engineer of Luton followed by three years as Assistant Waterworks Engineer at the Oldham Corporation Waterworks, Piethorne, near Rochdale.

Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 1/10th Battalion, Manchester Regiment on 24 January 1911, he served in Egypt from 10 September 1914 and Gallipoli from 10 May 1915. Appointed Adjutant on 23 August 1915, Temporary Major on 19 April 1916 and Acting Major on 27 August 1916, Wilkinson subsequently transferred to the Sinai Desert and the Western Front from 7 April 1917-17 December 1917. Invalided home due to bronchitis, the Officer in Command of the Surgical Division of the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, added a few more details to his medical notes:

'I have to-day examined medically Capt. L. St. G. Wilkinson, 10th Manchester R. He has fine muscular tremors and other signs of nerve wear. I think he ought to have a term of duty behind the line to restore nerve tone and that he is not at present fit for general service.'

In consequence, Wilkinson ended the war holding the appointment of attached officer to No. 2 Machine Gun Corps Training Brigade, employed largely on clerical work. According to a contemporary newspaper article:

'Throughout the last war Mr. Wilkinson served with the 42nd Division in France and the Dardanelles, and was awarded the Military Cross for distinguished work under fire. Only to intimate friends, however, could he be induced to recall his war-time experiences.'

Demobilised in 1919, he took employment as Borough and Water Engineer at Crewe, where among other works, he carried out the £60,000 Northern Outfall Sewer Scheme. Four years later Wilkinson was appointed Borough Engineer and Surveyor to the County Borough of Wallasey. Here he was instrumental in creating the New Brighton Promenade Scheme, which included the construction of the largest open-air bathing pool in the United Kingdom at that time. Costing over £1 million, Wilkinson was instrumental in transforming the 'seaside' aspect of the town:

'Perhaps it might with confidence be said that his greatest pride was in the New Brighton bathing pool, one of the finest in the world, for the design of which he was very largely responsible' (The obituary of L. St. J. Wilkinson, refers).

In 1941 at around the time of the death of his father, Wilkinson began to suffer from severe illness. He had a leg amputated at the Royal Hospital at Childwall and never fully recovered from the operation. A prominent Freemason and first President of the Wallasey Rotary Club, Wilkinson died on 19 February 1945. At his funeral a Guard of Honour was drawn from the Wallasey A.R.P. Rescue Service and his coffin was held aloft by service personnel. He left his home - 509 Portland Court, Wellington Road, Wallasey - and effects totalling £4572 18s., to his widow Winifred Emily Wilkinson.

Sold with copied service record and the following prize and Masonic medals:

(i)
Institution of Municipal and County Engineers Past President's Neck Badge, 9ct. gold, the obverse engraved 'Lionel St. George Wilkinson Past President'.

(ii)
Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Badge 1925, silver-gilt and enamel (hallmarks for Birmingham, 1924), with top 'Steward' riband bar and sheaves of corn riband emblem.

(iii)
Three further extremely fine silver-gilt and enamel Masonic Badges.

(iv)
Manchester University Engineering Society Essay Competition Prize Medallion, silver (1906. Lionel St. G. Wilkinson. Present Student.).

(v)
Institution of Municipal and County Engineers Prize Medal, bronze, the reserve inscribed 'Lionel St. George Wilkinson for his paper on Ten Years Municipal Development in Wallasey 1935'.

(vi)
Mayor and Corporation of Wallasey, white metal plaque, commemorating the opening of the swimming baths.


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Sold for
£900

Starting price
£550