Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War 1918 M.M. awarded to Sergeant T. Stephenson, 7th (Service) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, late Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters), who was killed in action on the Western Front on 4 November 1918 during the Battle of the Sambre

Military Medal G.V.R. (235616 Sjt: T. Stephenson. 7/Linc: R.) very fine £260-£300

M.M. London Gazette 14 May 1919 .

Tom Stephenson was born in Newhall, Burton on Trent, Derbyshire in 1889. In 1911 he was residing at Woodville, Derbyshire with the occupation of coal miner. He attested for the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters), and served with the 1st/5th Battalion (Territorial Force) during the Great War on the Western Front from 1 March 1915. He later transferred to the 7th (Service) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, and was awarded the Military Medal, very likely for service during the period August to October 1918; a time when the 7th Battalion were engaged and suffered casualties at the Second Battles of the Somme (The Battle of Albert in August 1918 and the aftermath of the Battle of Bapaume in September 1918).

Stephenson was killed in action on 4 November 1918 at the Battle of the Sambre. The activities of the 7th (Service) Battalion that day are described in detail in The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment 1914 - 1918 by Major-General C. R. Simpson, C.B.:
‘In rain and absolute darkness, the 7th Lincolnshires set out from Poix at 7.30 p.m. on the 3rd and reached their assembly positions just south of Gay Farm. Zero was 5.30 a.m. In spite of rain, cold and hostile shell-fire, the men snatched a little sleep during the night of the 3rd /4th, and at zero advanced on a two-company frontage, A on the right, C on the left, B in support and D in reserve. The rain had ceased, but shortly after zero a heavy ground mist rose which, with the ten per cent, smoke shell used in the barrage, very soon obscured everything. The battalion crossed the Englefontaine-Le Quesnoy road close on the heels of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and waited in some orchards to give the latter battalion time to get forward. When, fifteen minutes later, the Lincolnshires advanced, the fog was so dense that it was impossible to see a man twenty paces off. The support company moved to the right and for a time was lost, touch on the flanks being lost also. On reaching a road running from north to south, west of Futoy, the Lincolnshires reorganised: they were joined by a company of the Duke of Wellington’s, which had been detached from its own battalion: this company was placed in support. Moving forward again in the mist, and deflected towards the left by numerous hedges, the battalion found itself at Futoy just as the fog lifted. The village at this period was under heavy and accurate shell-fire from the Divisional artillery: the Lincolnshires, therefore, split up, two companies moving each side of the village, twenty prisoners and two machine-guns being captured en route. At 8.47 a.m. the battalion reformed. A Company (on the right), with D in support, then moved across open ground and advanced in a north-easterly direction up to the Route St. Hubert. C on the left moved along the Laie Hecquet. Very little opposition was encountered: desultory machine-gun and rifle-fire met the advance here and there and a few skirmishes took place, but the battalion moved through the forest without meeting with that resistance generally associated with wood fighting. By 10.40 a.m. ten field-guns, eight light machine-guns and about one hundred and twenty prisoners had been captured. B Company had, in the meantime, rejoined and the Lincolnshires reorganised. Two hours later the 50th Brigade passed through the 51st, and at about 2.15 p.m. two companies of the Lincolnshires were sent forward to a line just west of the Institut Forestier. The advance of the 50th Brigade had, however, been held up, and the two companies dug in with the remainder of the 51st Brigade. During the operations on the 4th the 7th Lincolnshires lost six other ranks killed, and three officers and one hundred and five other ranks wounded.’

Stephenson was amongst those killed, and is buried in Englefontaine British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.