Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Beaumont Hamel, June 1916’ M.C. group of four awarded to Second Lieutenant W. H. Kelly, 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse engraved ‘Lieut. W. H. Kelly 2nd S.W.B. 1916’; 1914-15 Star (6767 C.S. Mjr. W. H. Kelly. L’pool R.); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. W. H. Kelly.) mounted for display with unconfirmed M.I.D. oak leaves, good very fine (4) £1,000-£1,400

M.C. London Gazette 22 September 1916. The published citation is a redacted version of the following Brigade Commander’s recommendation (87th Brigade, 29th Division, XIII Corps) dated 11 July 1916, a contemporary original handwritten copy of which accompanies the lot:

‘Near Beaumont Hamel, France, on the night of June 27/28th 1916, this officer took out a patrol and removed a portion of the German wire entanglement. While this was in progress the enemy opened with Machine Guns on the wire and threw bombs at a range of 20 yards. With initiative and coolness he collected his party into a bit of dead ground and after half an hour’s wait until the fire had died down, continued and completed his task.’

William Henry Kelly served in France as a Company Sergeant Major in the Liverpool Regiment from 21 February 1915. Having been promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major, he was granted a commission as Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers in early 1916. Winning the M.C. in the final days of preparation for the long-planned “Z day”, the opening attack of the battle of the Somme, delayed to 1 July 1916, Kelly was among the wounded on that fateful day. As described in the regimental history, ‘Within twenty minutes of Zero, the 2nd S.W.B. had been virtually wiped out... Of the officers, Captains Blake, Hughes and McLaren, Lieutenant H. P. Evans, Second Lieutenants Bowyer, Don, Karran, Murray, Rice, Robinson and Wells had been killed. Captain Somerville and Lieutenants Fowkes, Kelly and Mason could be reckoned fortunate in being merely wounded.’