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Auction: 24113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 435

Sold by Order of a Direct Descendent

The Great War group of three awarded to Private P. H. Deal, East Lancashire Regiment, who left behind fascinating and detailed accounts of his experience serving in the First World War and day-to-day life in London during the Second World War

1914 Star, clasp (8924 Pte. P. Deal. 1/E. Lan: R.); British War and Victory Medals (8924 Pte. P. Deal. E. Lan. R.), light toning, otherwise good very fine (3)

Percy Henry Deal was born in Lee, Kent on 10 November 1888 and was one of seven children and the youngest son born to Thomas George Deal and his wife Sarah Ann. 11-year-old Deal appears on the 1901 census as living with his family at 154 Ennerdale Road in Lewisham, London. After leaving school, Deal worked as an apprentice first to a blinds-maker and then to a picture frame maker before deciding to enlist with the East Lancashire Regiment, which he did at Gravesend on 4 July 1906.

Deal was stationed at the Depot in Preston for a few months before being sent to join his Regiment at The Curragh in Ireland. From Ireland, he was sent to India to join the 2nd Battalion, for which he disembarked on the Reward. Deal's memoir recalls his time in India, describing marching from Karachi to Quatta. While in India he undertook a Mounted Infantry training course at Poona, from which he graduated on 15 February 1909.

From India, Deal embarked for South Africa with his Regiment, arriving first at Durban and then on to Cape Town. While in South Africa, Deal became groom to the Regimental Adjutant Captain Caine. He later saw Caine killed in France while leading a bayonet charge to recapture a German trench. After serving Caine in South Africa, Deal joined the Army Reserve and became groom and valet to a retired Colonel with whom he stayed in the Lake District. He was there with the Colonel upon the outbreak of the First World War when the notice was posted for reservists to join their Regiment, and Deal immediately embarked for the depot at Preston.

Just days after his arrival at Preston, Deal along with the rest of the 1st Battalion crossed the channel from Southampton to Le Havre on 22 August 1914. They were then entrained for the Front Line and saw action against the Germans very quickly. Deal's extremely detailed, fascinating, and at times highly emotional account of the War recalls his encounters with the locals, the experience of German shelling and attacks in French villages, camaraderie amongst the men of the Regiment, and his experience of trench warfare. Some excerpts have been reproduced here for interest:

"As we lay in the straw someone called on the French Interpreter to give us a song and so he sang the French National Anthem in French & English and all the troops seemed to know the words and they really let go with their voices. After that some of our men gave us a sing. Gradually the singing stopped and we fell asleep."

"As we were driving the Germans back I remember we were lying in a ditch waiting to attack a captured village, as we lay there, the Germans sent over four Jack Johnsons in quick succession. They landed just in front of where I was laying, but luckily for some of us, the ground was very wet and the shells first buried themselves into the ground and then exploded. Then the earth seemed to open up and then it came right over the top of us. I managed to push my way out of it somehow…soon after this I saw that my ears were bleeding…"

"I remember that while I was keeping my eyes on the Germans there was an issue of Pinkes jam… when I knew we were going to have some jam for breakfast I thought our luck was in… I sat down with the tin of jam in front of me. I got a slice of bread and had just started to spread it when the chap who was on look-out lit his pipe and, as he did so, a bullet went right through his head, he uttered a groan, spun round and fell straight down at my feet. His brains spluttered up the side of the trench and up the side of the tin of jam, that finished the jam for me."

Deal was not in France for long, as a doctor came to examine the men in the trenches and, concerned about Deal's bleeding ears, sent him to hospital. After a few hospital visits in France he was sent home on the St. David, arriving at Southampton and entraining for Aberdeen. Deal recalls "I shall never forget the sight when we arrived at the hospital. As we entered a ward and I saw the lovely white sheeted bed it seemed to me that I had just come from hell and had arrived in heaven."

After spending three weeks in hospital, he was returned to his depot and sent on furlough. However, his ears kept bleeding and he was repeatedly forced to return to hospital for treatment. Deal was eventually discharged as being no longer physically fit for service on 22 May 1915 at Plymouth.

Needing work, Deal became a gas fitter's mate at Woolwich Arsenal. He was later given work at the Cannon Cordite factory, where he had to cut the buttons off of his shirt because they were metal and could potentially spark and cause an explosion. While working at the Ely Cartridge Factory, Deal notes the exciting visit of Captain Robinson who had brought down a German zeppelin.

Deal continued to work as a labourer after the end of the First World War. In 1928, he married Louise Morgan in Chelsea, London and they went on to have three children. Louise's mother Maria also lived with the family, who by 1939 resided at 67 Runnymede Crescent in London.

The family was living there during the Second World War with Deal working as a newspaper warehouseman for the Evening Standard, also taking up night duties as a neighbourhood fire patrol. Deal kept a diary during the conflict, with his entries commencing just after Christmas 1940 and they continue irregularly through January 1943. These entries constitute a fascinating glance at the daily life of Londoners during the Blitz, and its impact on day-to-day life. The following is but one interesting excerpt:

30 February 1940: "Last night London had its worst bashing since the war started as I walked along London Rd. Blackfriars there were several shops hit and some were alight. They were sweeping up the glass etc. as I walked over Blackfriars Bridge there were 100s of fire hoses laying in the road some hoses were laying in the Thames drawing water for a fire that was burning in some shops over Blackfriars District…"

Deal ends his journal with the following recollection: "One instant stands out in my memory... One night just before it was getting dark 1,000 American bombers came over our houses on their way to bomb Germany. All the people stood in their back and front gardens and cheered them on their way. The planes were so low we could see all the men in their planes waving as they passed over Streatham and London. As I laid in my bed just before dawn I could hear some of the planes coming back. I laid there wondering how they got on. No man can give more than his life"

Percy Henry Deal died on 27 August 1976.

This Lot includes:

1)
Original handwritten journal of Deal's time in WWI written retrospectively in the 1930s, also with typed copies

2)
Handwritten pages from his diary describing daily life in London during WWII

3)
A wealth of original army forms, documents, certificates, dating from the 1900s and 1910s

4)
Silver War Badge, On War Service badge, and four WWI and WWII cap badges of the East Lancashire Regiment and the RAC. Also with an impressed metal dog tag and a WWI bullet turned into a charm

5)
Princess Mary's 1914 Christmas Tin with Card

6)
The book Images of England: The East Lancashire Regiment 1855-1958 by John Downham

7)
Photograph 'On parade in India'; family photograph; postcard 'Xmas greetings from the 7th Division 1918 Italy'

8)
Framed photo of Deal in uniform mounted on horseback

9)
Copied research

10)
All held within large wooden chest bearing his initials

For the medals of his brother, Charles Ernest Deal, please see Lot 481.



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Sold for
£450

Starting price
£210