Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ D.C.M. group of four awarded to Acting-Sergeant J. Firth, 1st Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, who was killed in action in Flanders on 4 June 1916

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (7522 Cpl. J. Firth. 1/W. York: R.); 1914 Star (7522 Pte. J. Firth. 1/W. York: R.); British War and Victory Medals (7522 A-Sjt. J. Firth. W. York. R.) medals unmounted, the Victory Medal with some verdigris, otherwise nearly extremely fine (4) £1,200-£1,600

D.C.M. London Gazette 3 June 1916; citation published 21 June 1916:

‘For consistent gallantry and good work throughout, notably when he carried messages at a critical time under heavy fire.’

John Firth entered the French theatre of war as a Private in the 1st Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, on 8 September 1914. He was killed in action as an Acting-Sergeant in an attack to capture and hold ‘Old British Trench’, near Ypres, on the night of 3rd/4th June 1916. He was aged 30 years, the son of Squire and Martha Firth, of Liversedge, West Yorkshire, and is buried in Essex Farm Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. It was in this cemetery that Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps wrote the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ in May 1915.

Sold with copied research including Medal Index Card, gazette notices, War Diary extracts covering his last action and photographs of his gravestone and cemetery.