Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War ‘1914’ D.C.M. awarded to Private W. J. J. Leach, Royal Army Medical Corps

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (18722 Pte., R.A.M.C.) edge bruising, pitting, scratching, worn £600-800

D.C.M. London Gazette 17 September 1914. ‘For exceptionally good work at the Dressing Stations at Bucy le Long and St. Marguerite, during the bombardment of the 14th to the 18th September 1914’.

Private William J. J. Leach, R.A.M.C. entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 22 August 1914. He was awarded one of the earliest D.C.M’s. to the R.A.M.C. in the Great War. The incident at Bucy le Long aroused a great deal of public resentment at the time as the Germans were accused of deliberately shelling the hospital. One soldier wrote “In Bucy le Long we were behind a large hospital flying a Red Cross flag which could easily be seen. It was shelled three times in the same day in daylight. At the last time the hospital was in flames and the patients were being taken out.” Ending the war as a Sergeant, he was entitled to the 1914 Star with clasp and British War and Victory Medals. Sold with copied m.i.c.