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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 448

The rare Battle of Amiens 1918 M.C. group of three awarded to Lieutenant C. W. Charter, 'A' Company, 1st Battalion, Tank Corps, the Commander of Ajax, the only tank from the Company to survive the first day of that famous action

Military Cross, G.V.R. (Lt. C. W. Charter Aug. 8th 1918 Le Quesnel); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. C. W. Charter.), good very fine (3)

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

Cyril Walter Charter was born on 20 May 1895, the son of Mr Walter Thomas Charter, of Morden House, Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge. Having worked as a Hospital Dispensary Apprentice in 1911, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps on 28 August 1917. He transferred to the Tank Corps and was in Command of the Mark V Ajax, which was present in the Battle of Amiens.

On what would be famed as the ‘The Black Day of the German Army’, British, Australian, Canadian and French Divisions attacked across a 13-mile front, taking 17,000 prisoners, capturing 330 guns, and causing a reported 30,000 enemy casualties.

As part of 'A' Company, 1st Battalion, Tank Corps, Charter attacked in support of the Canadian 4th Division, where he and his fellow tanks attacked across open territory toward Le Quesnel, encountering well-prepared German anti-tank guns which knocked out nine of the 10 tanks in his Company. Carrying on to the village alone, Ajax, carrying its complement of machine gunners, reached its objective but was forced to retreat owing to a lack of general support. This pocket of strong-resistance was something of an exception, as
the day’s attack brought about huge gains in territory, and was to mark the beginning of the end of the typical trench warfare which had dominated the preceding years.

Charter, who had issue of three children, died at King’s Lynn, Norfolk, in March 1975.

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Sold for
£1,600

Starting price
£1200