A Great War ‘Battle of Pilckhem Ridge’ M.C. group of three awarded to Lieutenant W. F. Francis, 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment - a prisoner-of-war of the Germans

Military Cross, G.V.R., reverse inscribed, ‘Lieut. Wilfred Francis 1st Herts Regt’; British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.); together with three ‘Hertfordshire’ badges mounted on a board, medals nearly extremely fine (6) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 30 January 1920. ‘... in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the field, which have been brought to notice in accordance with the terms of Army Order 193 of 1919.’ ‘Lt. Wilfred Frederick Francis, Bedf. & Herts. R., T.F.’; corrected London Gazette 5 March 1920, ‘Lt. Wilfred Frederick Francis, Herts. R., T.F.’

Wilfred Frederick Francis was born in Uxbridge on 25 May 1897. At the time of the Great War he was a Medical Student. As a Cadet from the London University Contingent, Senior Division, O.T.C., he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment. As such he entered the France/Flanders theatre of war in June 1916. He was wounded at Festubert, 18 July 1916, suffering a penetrating gunshot wound to the left hand - his left ulnar artery was ligatured, and superficial wounds to the face. As a result of his wounds he was invalided home.

Returning once more to the Western Front and serving with the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, he was captured by the Germans at St. Julien, near Ypres on 31 July 1917 - the opening day of the battle of Pilckhem Ridge (31 July-2 August 1917), Third Battle of Ypres. His official statement regarding the circumstances which led to his capture reads as follows:

‘On the 31st July 17 my regiment had orders to take the final objective in part of the “Langemarck Line” near St. Julien. My platoon was one of the local supports. Everything went according to plan up to 10 o’clock in the morning when we captured St. Julien. The Germans then counter attacked. I brought my platoon up to support the leading companies - this counter attack was effectively dealt with & the Germans taking part either killed or captured. At this time I found myself & another officer (Lt. Thompson W.) the only two left in the leading line, we reorganized & carried on following the creeping barrage. On reaching the wire in front of the Langemarck Line we found it uncut but a few of us including myself managed to get through. The Germans however who were preparing to surrender seeing how few we were returned back into their lines & opened a heavy fire onto us. We took cover in a shell hole & dug ourselves in hoping for supports, a few minutes later we were surprised to see parties of Germans walking about behind us, who had evidently come round our flanks. We tried to run back to our own lines but got so heavily fired on that we decided to hide & get back at night. We managed to hide until 4 o’clock in the afternoon when a party of about 6 Germans & an officer saw us & told us to go along with them. There were no signs of our men & parties of Germans everywhere, so seeing further resistance was useless we surrendered.’

At the time of his capture, Lieutenant Francis was originally reported as having been killed. This erroneous report was later rectified and a photograph of him and three other Hertfordshire officers being held as prisoners of war appeared in the Herts Advertiser & St. Albans Times of 22 September 1917. His Military Cross was an award for gallantry when he was taken prisoner on 31 July 1917. Francis was repatriated on 14 December 1918.

With copied service papers, newspaper extract, a more expanded account of events leading to his capture, m.i.c. and other research.