The Second World War B.E.F. 1940 operations D.C.M. group of four awarded to Warrant Officer Class 1 W. S. I. Lockie, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders: having won his D.C.M. for the 7th Battalion’s gallant last stand at Franleu in June 1940, when he was wounded and taken P.O.W., he went on to add a “mention” to his accolades for his services while held in captivity

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.VI.R. (2966886 W.O. Cl. I W. S. I. Lockie, A. & S.H.); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D. oak leaf; Army L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue, Regular Army (2966866 W.O. Cl. II W. S. I. Lockie, A. & S.H.), mounted as worn, minor contact marks, good very fine and better (4) £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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D.C.M. London Gazette 11 October 1945:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Field.’

Mention in despatches London Gazette 20 December 1945:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services while a prisoner of war.’

William Stewart Inglis Lockie enlisted in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in February 1919 and remained employed in the U.K. until September 1927, when he was posted to Jamaica. His subsequent overseas postings prior to the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939 included China, Hong Kong and Shanghai 1929-33 and India 1933-34 and he had attained Warrant Officer status prior to joining the British Expeditionary Force out in France in February 1940. A member of the 7th Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, he was wounded and taken prisoner at the defence of Franleu on the Somme in early June 1940, a desperate engagement described in Eric Linklater’s The Highland Division:

‘The village of Franleu became the scene of a very stubborn, heroic conflict ... The Regimental Sergeant-Major [Lockie] of the 7th Argylls went out with three men and found the Germans, in large numbers, astride the road from Arrest. The defence of the village was swiftly organised, Bren guns removed from half a dozen carriers for use in section-posts, and a patrol set out to deal with snipers. Then the telephone line to Brigade Headquarters was cut, but a subaltern, though shot at by the Germans, in the southern parts of the village, got through to Hoquelus and reported the situation ... [by the following day] ... The only mortar had done valiantly against the many German weapons, and the enemy had twice been driven back when, extended in double line, under cover of smoke, they had tried to rush the village. But the German bombardment had done great damage, and there were many wounded in the cellar below the village school. A machine-gun section of the Northumberland Fusiliers had been particularly successful, but early in the afternoon it was silenced. And a little later in the afternoon the solitary invaluable mortar was put out of action by a direct hit. In the growing heat of the afternoon - summer’s heat and the heat of the burning houses - German reinforcements arrived - three tanks, motor-cycle troops, four hundred infantry. But still the enemy was held away, though no help came for the small and weary garrison. Then about five o’clock, a mortar bomb hit the last remaining ammunition-truck, which took fire and blew up, and made a wreck of Battalion Headquarters. Captain Robertson, who had organised the defence, was wounded, and so were Major Younger, Regimental Sergeant-Major Lockie, Company Sergeant-Major Dyer; they had, throughout the day, shown tireless energy and set for all a magnificent example. In the section-posts, in houses and on the outskirts of the village, there were by now many wounded men and many dead. There was no reserve ammunition, no hope of reinforcement. An hour after the blowing up of the ammunition-truck, Colonel Buchanan took stock and decided that the defence could not be maintained. He was unable to communicate with some of the outlying sections; but the others were told to use what vehicles they could find, and try to break through the German lines ... By the end of the day 23 officers and some 500 other ranks of the 7th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders were killed, wounded or missing.’

Lockie subsequently spent three months in a hospital at Lille before being transported by cattle truck to Stalag VIII B at Lamsdorf, where he remained incarcerated until being moved to Thorn in Poland in the winter of 1944. In the interim, as confirmed in his P.O.W. debrief papers, he was among those ‘tied daily, and later handcuffed, as a reprisal for the alleged events at Dieppe’.

Then early in the following year, due to the advancing Soviet Army, all of the prisoners were transported to Fallingbostel - ‘At Thorn and Fallingbostel I was in charge of Red Cross distribution and then took over as Camp Leader’ (accompanying handwritten career summary by Lockie refers). Once again, however, due to the advance of the Allies, his camp was evacuated, the prisoners being split into six columns (with approximately 1500 men in each), and marched towards Lubeck, and it was during this journey, on 19 April 1945, near Gresse, that around 30 British servicemen were killed by an attack made by our own aircraft - ‘I collected what particulars I could in the time available and arranged for their burial in the local churchyard’.

In company with Warrant Officer Dean, R.A.F., Lockie was now issued with a pass by the Germans and permitted to move freely between the marching columns, relative freedom that allowed him to issue updated “news bulletins” to his fellow prisoners, the whole obtained via a wireless set which had been concealed in a portable type-writer. Finally, having reached the vicinity of Zarentan, Lockie made contact with an advanced motorised unit of the British Army and, having obtained a car, returned to the assorted columns and confiscated the arms and ammunition of the German guards. He was subsequently flown home from Luneburg and was discharged in March 1946.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including a signed copy of Lockie’s “Camp Leader’s” movement order for the British prisoners at Fallingbostel; a signed order from the Kommandantur, Stalag 357, permitting Lockie to move freely amongst the P.O.Ws in the vicinity of Vellan-Gallin, dated 18 April 1945; Lockie’s handwritten roll of honour for the British P.O.Ws killed at Gresse on 19 April 1945; a typed “news sheet” for his fellow prisoners, dated 1 May 1945, the content drawn from B.B.C. broadcasts; two letters from R.A.F. -ex-prisoners, thanking Lockie for his assistance following the Gresse incident, dated 18 June 1945 and 3 September 1945 (‘Your handling of a very difficult task was amazing and your efficiency and integrity was the envy of a great many’); Infantry Records’ communications regarding the award of his D.C.M. and “mention”; War Office letter requesting his presence at a Buckingham Palace investiture, dated 17 November 1946; and his handwritten summary of his career, as provided at the time of selling his awards circa 1980.