Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.C.M., M.M. group of four awarded to Sergeant H. C. Smith, 58th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, who was wounded in the process of winning his D.C.M. on the Marcoing Line in 1918

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (633339 Sjt. H. C. Smith, M.M., 58/Can. Inf.); Military Medal, G.V.R. (633339 Sjt. H. C. Smith, 58/Bn. 2/C. Ont. R.); British War and Victory Medals (633339 Sjt. H. C. Smith, 58-Can. Inf.), very fine (4) £1700-1900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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D.C.M. London Gazette 12 February 1919:

‘Near Cambrai, for gallantry and devotion to duty during the night of 28 September 1918, on the Marcoing Line, and for the attack on Pont d’Aire on 1 October 1918. With a mere handful of men, he pushed on and captured the Marcoing support line on 28 September in the face of heavy opposition. His courage and example enabled his men to hold on, he himself patrolling alone to connect up his flanks. On 1 October he continued in command after being wounded’.

M.M. London Gazette 11 February 1919.

Howard Clayton Smith was born in Port Albert, Ontario, on 11 April 1897. A Labourer by trade, he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force at Hawkesbury, Ontario, in January 1916.

Embarked for France for service in the 58th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, in January 1917, he was wounded by a gas shell in April 1918, and again, by shrapnel in the left arm, on the occasion of winning his D.C.M. near Cambrai that September. Also a recipient of the M.M., he was discharged in Ottawa in March 1919; sold with copied service papers.