Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

A fine Great War Passchendaele 1917 operations M.M. group of three awarded to Private T. Dickson, 7th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (The British Columbia Regiment)

Military Medal, G.V.R. (180608 Pte. T. Dickson, 7/Can. Inf.); British War and Victory Medals (180608 Pte., 7-Can. Inf.), the first with refixed suspension claw, occasional edge bruising, otherwise very fine and better (3) £350-400

M.M. London Gazette 13 March 1918. The original recommendation states:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during operations at Passchendaele on 10-11 November 1917. As a Company Stretcher-Bearer he worked for two days and nights with untiring energy dressing and getting out the wounded, though under continuous fire. By his courage and endurance he undoubtedly saved many lives.’

Thomas Dickson, who was born at Govan, near Glasgow in March 1887, enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Victoria, British Columbia in December 1915. Posted to the 7th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, he served with distinction out in France, not least in the attack launched by his unit at Passchendaele on the 10-11 November 1917, when the Battalion sustained around 375 casualties. The Major commanding wrote in his official report:

‘It was impossible during the 10th to clear wounded from the Regimental Aid Post, owing to exceptionally heavy shell-fire, with the result that the Post was crowded with stretcher cases throughout the night ... owing to the exhaustion of the men and the constant shell-fire, it was impossible to bury many of the dead and no means were at hand for marking the graves of those that were buried ... very heavy rain fell shortly after Zero and continued throughout most of the day, making the whole terrain and system of trenches into one vast mud-hole and calling for the utmost limits of human endurance to carry on ...’

Dickson was discharged back in Canada, at Vancouver, in March 1919.