Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce Great War M.M. group of three awarded to Petty Officer J. Simpson, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, attached Royal Naval Division - having been wounded in November 1916, he was taken P.O.W. during the German Spring Offensive in March 1918

Military Medal, G.V.R. (TZ-2515 P.O., Anson Bn., R.N.V.R.); 1914-15 Star (TZ. 2515 A.B., R.N.V.R.); British War Medal 1914-20 (T.Z. 2515 P.O., R.N.V.R.), the last with officially re-impressed naming, edge bruising, otherwise generally very fine (3) £500-600

M.M. London Gazette 4 February 1918.

Joseph Simpson, a miner from Denton Burn, Newcastle-on-Tyne, who was born in June 1892, enlisted in the Tyneside Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, in January 1915, and was posted to Anson Battalion, Royal Naval Division, as an Able Seaman, that August, shortly thereafter serving with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Stavros. Returning home in early 1916, he served as an attendant to Lieutenant Campbell at Divisional H.Q. before rejoining Anson Battalion that May, and the 3rd Trench Mortar Battery (R.N.D.) in July. Wounded in the right shoulder on 14 November 1916, Simpson was evacuated to 32 Stationary Hospital, Wimereux and thence to the Military Hospital, Eastbourne.

Returning to France with an appointment in 188th Light Trench Mortar Battery (R.N.D.) in early 1917, he was advanced to Leading Seaman in July and to Petty Officer in the following month, the notification for the award of his M.M. appearing in his unit’s routine orders that November. Then in March 1918, following a brief period of leave in the U.K., Simpson was taken P.O.W. in the German Spring Offensive, news of his capture not being confirmed until June. Repatriated in January 1919, he was shortly afterwards demobilised.