A Great War M.C. group of three awarded to Lieutenant W. Collings, Monmouthshire Regiment, who was killed in action at Lys in April 1918

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.), good very fine and better (3) £700-900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Monmouthshire Regiment formed by Lt. Col. P. A. Blagojevic, O. St. J., T.D..

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M.C. London Gazette 10 January 1917:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He displayed great courage and determination in organising and leading stretcher parties to collect wounded under heavy fire.’

Walter Collings was born in Monmouthshire in November 1891 and was an articled mining pupil at the Powell Tillery Colliery, Abertillery come the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. Enlisting in the 2/3rd Mommouthshires at Abergavenny in the following month, he gained rapid promotion to the rank of Sergeant prior to being appointed to a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in April 1915. But as confirmed by his MIC entry - and his sole entitlement to the British War & Victory Medals - he cannot have arrived out in France until the following year. And when he did so, most probably in time for the Somme offensive, he was attached to the 12th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry - the Battalion lost nearly 200 men on 1 July 1916. But, as confirmed by the following details, his M.C. was for later operations on the Somme:

‘On 13 November 1916, II Corps and V Corps stormed the German line north of the Ancre ... In V Corps, the 31st Division attacked in line with the 3rd Division on its right. Two battalions of the 92nd Infantry Brigade were in the first line and with them went half of the 12/K.O.Y.L.I., the pioneer battalion, numbering 12 officers and 356 men. The attack was successful in reaching its objectives, but the troops had to withdraw at night from the captured positions owing to the pressure in front and from both flanks. In fact, their role had been primarily to draw the fire of part of the enemy artillery on themselves in order to assist the advance of II Corps. Captain G. M. Stockings, who was in command of the K.O.Y.L.I. companies, was instructed to withdraw them in the night, but he left 2nd Lieutenants W. Collings and W. A. Hunter with seventy other volunteers behind to help bring in the wounded of the 92nd Infantry Brigade, who were lying out in No Man’s Land ... 2nd Lieutenants W. Collings and W. A. Hunter received the M.C. by the immediate award of G.O.C. 31st Division’ (Bond’s The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the Great War 1914-1918, refers).

Evacuated home as a result of sickness at the end of 1916, Collings returned to France in the 1/2nd Monmouthshires in due course and was killed in action in the desperate fighting at Lys on 10 April 1918. He is buried in Le Grand Hasard Military Cemetery, Morbecque.