Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Corporal W. Waters, 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, who landed at 'W' Beach, Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915, where his Regiment won 'Six V.C.'s before Breakfast' 

1914-15 Star (1079 Pte. W. Waters, Lan. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (1079 A.Cpl. W. Waters. Lan. Fus.) very fine and better (3) £140-£180

William Waters was born in 1886 and lived at 22 South Street, Bury, Lancashire. He attested for the Lancashire Fusiliers on 26 February 1906 and was an experienced soldier at the time of the Cape Helles landings on 25 April 1915. Rowed to shore aboard the small cutters of Euryalus and Implacable, the men of the 1st Battalion were greeted at 6 a.m. by a ceaseless hail of rifle, machine gun and pom pom fire; many died in the boats and of those who struggled ashore through barbed-wire entanglements and deep, soft sand, few were unscathed. Through rallying cries and extreme courage the high ground behind the beach was carried, but at a terrible cost. By nightfall only 11 officers and 399 other ranks remained fit for duty. General Sir Ian Hamilton later wrote in his despatch:

'So strong, in fact, were the defences of 'W' Beach that the Turks may well have considered them impregnable, and it is my firm conviction that no finer feat of arms has ever been achieved by the British soldier - or any soldier - than the storming of these trenches from the open boats on the morning of 25 April... The Fusiliers literally hurled themselves ashore and, fired at from right, left and centre, commenced hacking their way through the wire. A long line of men was at once mown down as by a scythe, but the remainder was not to be denied...’

Waters survived the Gallipoli Campaign and likely joined his comrades in the evacuation of January 1916. He later transferred to the 2/8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, and was fortunate to survive the devastating onslaught of German storm troopers in the opening waves of the German Spring offensive of March 1918; the Battalion suffered 85 men killed and wounded in just ten days, with a further 657 officers and men captured in the fighting around Hargicourt on the Aisne. Waters was later discharged on 17 December 1918.