Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare 1914 ‘Affair at Nery’ group of four awarded to Sergeant S. G. Roe, “L” Battery, Royal Horse Artillery

1914 Star (57021 A.Bmbr: S. G. Roe. R.H.A.); British War and Victory Medals (57021 Sjt. S. G. Roe. R.A.); Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue with fixed suspension (1032311 Sjt. S. G. Roe. R.A.) mounted as worn, light contact marks, nearly very fine (4) £300-£400

Samuel Gibbons Roe was born in Nottingham in 1892. He married Irene E. Cross at Marylebone in 1912 and served in France from 15 August 1914 with “L” Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. Responsible for light, mobile guns designed to provide firepower in support of the cavalry, “L” Battery and “I” Battery formed 7th R.H.A. Brigade in support of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. Heavily engaged on 24 August 1914 in the area of Quievrain and Baisieux, the guns of “L” Battery proved devastating against waves of enemy infantry; firing shrapnel shells low and with accuracy, Major Tom Bridges of the 4th Dragoons noted ‘two British guns firing away as if they had been on the range at Okehampton.’

Having survived this engagement, Roe and his comrades joined the famous ‘Retreat from Mons’ with German forces consistently nipping at their heels. Tired from endless marching and the manoeuvring of heavy limbers along cobbled and unmade roads, “L” Battery and the 1st Cavalry Brigade selected the somewhat remote, small and ancient commune of Nery as the place to spend the night of 31 August-1 September 1914. Remarkably, the German 4th Cavalry Division had similar ideas, bivouacking a mere two miles away. Thus, as the fog lifted the following morning and each side sent reconnaissance patrols out to determine the situation, the scene was set for one of the most famous engagements of the entire Great War: the Affair at Nery.

The Affair at Nery
At first light on 1 September 1914 the Germans launched their attack on two flanks. Fired upon by 12 artillery pieces, supported by numerous machine guns, the men of “L” Battery awoke to a scene of utter chaos and destruction. Men and horses, mostly in the open and packed closely together, were shot down in swathes. Being closest to the enemy on the east side of the village, “L” Battery received the full weight of enemy fire from 700-800 yards; as the frightened horses plunged in their harnesses, the poles of their limbers embedded themselves in the ground and the horses were pinioned as they were blown to pieces by German shellfire. Amidst this scene of hell, the surviving Gunners rallied under the command of Captain E. K. Bradbury, initially getting three guns into the fight. Expending their ammunition to the very last, “L” Battery were eventually reduced to a single artillery piece, their gallantry decisive in ‘buying time’ for the classic cavalry charge by the Queen’s Bays which ultimately restored the situation by creating confusion amongst the enemy. The action cost the British 135 casualties, including 23 killed and 31 wounded from the Battery. It also resulted in the award of three Victoria Crosses to the men of “L” Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. Today, the surviving ‘Nery Gun’ is preserved in the Imperial War Museum, testament to the ‘David and Goliath’ struggle of that early autumn morning.

Roe survived the Great War and never claimed the clasp to his 1914 Star. He died at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on 5 December 1946.

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