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Auction: 22101 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 334

Three: Private J. H. S. Moore, '2' Company, 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards, killed in action on 13 April 1918 and believed to have been one of the forty men who fought a last stand at Vieux-Berquin, France for which Captain T. T. Pryce was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross

British War and Victory Medals (28195 Pte. J. H. Moore. G. Gds.); Great War Bronze Memorial Plaque (Joseph Herbert Spreight Moore), contact marks, very fine (3)

Joseph Herbert Spreight Moore was born at Hull, Yorkshire on 9 July 1897, the son of Walter and Jane Moore of 29 Grafton Street, Hull. Educated at Newland Avenue County Council School he later worked as a Clerk for the North Eastern Railway Company. Enlisting with the Grenadier Guards on 29 August 1916 he entered the war in France on 18 August 1917. Moore soon began to suffer from the regular ailments effecting soldiers in the trenches and was hospitalised with 'trench-foot' and septic poisoning on 21 October. Re-joining his Battalion in late February 1918 he was involved in the fighting around Vieux-Beruin on 13 April 1918, being listed as wounded and missing, presumed killed, that same day. The account of the employer of one of his comrades takes up the story:

'Our butler... has just returned home on 14 days leave. I asked him about H. S. Moore; they were both in the same Battalion, but in different Companies. He says he (Moore) was with Capt. Pryce when they made that last stand; they were surrounded by Germans, and could not be relieved. They fought until there were only 17 left, and these stood back to back with fixed bayonets, and then made a rush forward and were killed - the finest piece of heroism in the war. It is said every man was worthy of the V.C., so his people may be very, very proud of him.'

It is believed that Pryce's command was facing roughly a Battalion of German soldiers and that their astonishing 10-hour defence contributed significantly to preventing a German breakthrough. Moore's body was never located and he is commemorated upon the Ploegstreet Memorial; sold together with copied research including an extract from De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914-19, Commonwealth War Graves details and M.I.C.

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Sold for
£480

Starting price
£210