Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War ‘Gallipoli Operations’ M.M. awarded to Battery Quartermaster Sergeant F. A. Granados, Royal Field Artillery, who was wounded in action on the peninsula and later suffered from nervous debility

Military Medal, G.V.R. (10019 By: Q.M. Sjt: F. A. Granados. 368/By: R.F.A.) mounted with a hallmarked silver ‘1915’ riband bar, light contact marks, very fine £300-£400

M.M. London Gazette 11 November 1916:
‘Gallipoli, 1915. - For excellent work in charge of the wagon line, supplying ammunition and looking after the horses.’

Francisco Antonio Granados was born on Portsea Island, Hampshire, in 1886, the son of Antonio and Emma Granados. Of Italian ancestry, Granados attested for the Royal Field Artillery around fifteen years of age and served in Egypt from 1 April 1915. Posted to Gallipoli with 368th Battery, 147th Field Artillery Brigade, 29th Division, he was wounded in action on 6 June 1915 and awarded the Military Medal alongside Sergeant H. Mackenzie, Corporal J. E. Hughes and Bombardier W. Rayner for bravery displayed in the field between May and August 1915.

Evacuated home, it remains unclear whether he served again. Awarded a Silver War Badge, he was admitted to hospital on 26 April 1919 suffering from nervous debility – more commonly known today as shell shock. Transferred to Gateshead, he is later recorded at the War Hospital, St. Mary’s Asylum (Stannington), before being discharged permanently unfit from the Army on 28 May 1919.