Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 9033 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 78

Three: Second Lieutenant J. Cockburn, Warwickshire Regiment, Killed in Action in the Attack on St. Julien, Ypres, 25.4.1915 1914 Star (28060 Cpl. J. Cockburn. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. J. Cockburn.), nearly extremely fine (3) Estimate £ 250-300 Second Lieutenant John Cockburn prior to service was a resident of Yew Cottage, Bagshot, Surrey; initially served during the Great War as a Corporal with the Royal Engineers on the Western Front, from 8.9.1914; commissioned into the 1st Battalion Warwickshire Regiment, he was killed in action 25.4.1915, on the latter date Cockburn´s battalion inconjunction with 1/Royal Irish Fusiliers, 2/Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 2/Seaforth Highlanders and the 7/Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were tasked with an attack against St. Julien and Kitchener´s Wood (Ypres); the attack was initially organised to be carried out by 15 battalions, however, due to a communications problem only Brigadier-General Hull´s own brigade embarked on the offensive, with the following result, ´By rushes the leading lines advanced more than a quarter of a mile till they were within one hundred yards of the outlying houses of St. Julien. Then, though the fifth battalion was thrown in on the left, the lines paused and became stationary, and for twenty minutes the Germans deluged them with machine-gun fire, very effective and very heavy. A few men tried to crawl back into cover, but the majority of those in the leading lines never returned; mown down, like corn, by machine guns in enfilade, they remained lying dead in rows where they had fallen. The following lines were pinned to the ground by fire, and after several efforts to advance, as if by common accord, rose and surged back to cover in the folds of the ground and hedges behind them.... The losses of the 10th Brigade in its magnificent but hopeless attempt had been heavy, totalling 73 officers and 2,346 other ranks, mostly irreplaceable, well trained men´ (Official History of the War, Military Operations France and Belgium 1915, Vol. I., refers); Cockburn is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium

Sold for
£240