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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 681

To be sold on behalf of the family:

A fine M.M. group of 4 awarded to Private T. O'Neill, Royal Army Medical Corps, who rendered extensive service during the Great War and was witness to the extreme suffering faced by the troops on the Somme battlefield in 1916

Military Medal, G.V.R. (9755 Pte. T. O'Neill. R.A.M.C.); 1914 Star with clasp (9755 Pte. T. O'Neill, R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (9755 Pte. T. O'Neill. R.A.M.C.), the second with 2 silver rosettes attached to ribbon, nearly extremely fine (4)


M.M. London Gazette 8 December 1916.

Thomas O'Neill was born in 1892 at Rugby, Warwickshire, and served in France with the 22nd Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, from 7 October 1914. His unit joined 7th Division in late September 1914 as the regular army concentrated in the New Forest, Hampshire. They subsequently landed at Zeebrugge in the first week of October 1914 to assist in the defence of Antwerp, but were too late to prevent the fall of the city. Taking up important defensive positions at bridges and junctions, the men faced heavy losses attempting the stem the German advance; O'Neill would have been particularly busy serving as part of a unit which essentially formed an intermediate level in the casualty evacuation chain stretching from Regimental Aid Posts near the front lines to the Casualty Clearing Stations located outside the range of the enemy's artillery.

The Division went on to suffer heavy losses during the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of Loos. Reinforced to fighting strength by conscripts and school-leavers, the men were flung into action during the Battles of the Somme, including the capture of Mametz, the Battle of Bazentin and the assault on High Wood from 14 July-15 September 1916. Rates of attrition at the latter proved disastrous and over just four days of fighting the British recorded 4500 casualties. 141st Brigade was so depleted that after the reoccupation of the wood, it was reorganised into a composite battalion, its Commander, Major-General Charles St Leger Barter being relieved of command on 28 September for 'wanton waste of men' (The Hell they called High Wood: The Somme 1916, refers).

O'Neill was decorated for his service with the Field Ambulance on the Somme battlefield at around this time. He survived the war and was discharged on 22 January 1919. Despite being awarded the K.C.B. in 1916 and K.C.M.G. in 1918, Major-General Barter remained bitter that he had been made a scapegoat for the bloodbath by Lieutenant-General Sir William Pulteney, arguing that his superior had refused to listen to his reasoned objection that the shattered tree stumps made the passage of tanks impossible. Barter spent the remaining 13 years of his life attempting to have an enquiry into his dismissal, but was unsuccessful. Interestingly, the men remained largely loyal to the Major-General and he was welcomed at post-war divisional reunions and the unveiling of war memorials; sold with original card boxes of issue for the M.M., 1914 Star and Pair (3), original envelopes of transmittal, these addressed to 'Mr Thos O'Neill, 16 Wood Street, Rugby' and Mr T. O'Neill, 34 Dundonald Street, Barrow in Furness, Lancashire', together with a St John Ambulance Association bronze badge, the reverse engraved '170330 Thomas O'Neill', clasp, 1914, engraved '170330', and a RAMC brass cap badge, shoulder title and riband bar.



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Sold for
£350

Starting price
£270