Auction Catalogue

14 February 2024

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 281 x

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14 February 2024

Hammer Price:
£440

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. awarded to Private G. N. Wilson, 28th (Saskatchewan) Battalion, Canadian Infantry, for his gallantry at Fresnoy on 4 May 1917; he was twice wounded

Military Medal, G.V.R. (888268 Pte. G. N. Wilson. 28/Sask: R.) contact marks, slight edge bruise, nearly very fine £240-£280

M.M. London Gazette, 18 July 1917.

The official citation states: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty near Fresnoy on May 4th 1917, and subsequent days. His Company took over a line from the Battalion which had been engaged in heavy fighting with the enemy, and many wounded were lying in No Man’s Land, close to the enemy wire. He volunteered to go out and bring these men in, which he did at great personal risk from both the enemy M.G. and rifle fire which was very heavy, and from our own artillery which were keeping up a persistent fire on the enemy’s front line. By the bravery and devotion to duty undoubtedly saved many lives’.

Gordon Noble Wilson, an engineer from Nailsberry, Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada, was born in Michigan, U.S.A. on 9 May 1889. He attested into the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 11 April 1916, for service during the Great War and served on the Western Front with the 28th Battalion from 13 January 1917. He received a shrapnel wound to his right shoulder on 10 May 1917, and a gun shot wound to his right thigh on 29 July 1917. Awarded the Military Medal in July 1917, he was discharged as a consequence of his wounds on 17 May 1919 and was awarded a Silver War Badge, No. 185326. He died, aged 74, in Aborfield, Saskatchewan, on 31 October 1962.

Sold with copied service papers.