1914-15 Star (1605 Cpl. C. J. Pocock, R. Wilts. Yeo.), extremely fine £30-50

Carol James Pocock, a native of Calne, Wiltshire, who worked at his father’s farm at Heddington, enlisted at nearby Bowood House, the seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne, who was Hon. Colonel of the Wiltshire Yeomanry. Ordered to France in late 1915, where he served in the 6th (Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry) Battalion and gained advancement to the acting rank of Sergeant, he was killed in action at Morchies on 23 March 1918. The Battalion’s war diary takes up the story:

‘The stand made by the Battalion at Morchies from 4 p.m. on 22 March to 5 p.m. on the 23rd and all that it meant, is a glorious episode in the history of the Wiltshire Regiment. It is a heroic record of self sacrifice stemming the the victorious rush of a superior enemy and a model lesson of a rearguard fight. The subsequent retirement from Fremicourt through Bapaume to Grevillers and thence to Bayencourt was only one endless stubborn fight. Suffice it to say that only one officer, one Sergeant and 18 other ranks came out of the struggle, and that officer had also been wounded.’

Pocock, who was 23 years of age, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.