The Michael McGoona Collection to the Leinster Regiment

A Great War C.M.G. group of five awarded to Lieutenant Colonel F. E. Whitton, Leinster Regiment, who was severely wounded and briefly taken prisoner during the Battle of Armentières, 20 October 1914

The Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (Captain, Leinster Regt.) officially impressed naming; 1914 Star, with clasp (Capt., Leins. R.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col.) good very fine or better (5) £700-900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Michael McGoona Collection to the Leinster Regiment.

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C.M.G. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

M.I.D. London Gazette 6 July 1918.

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Ernest Whitton, C.M.G. was born on 10 June 1872; entered the Leinster Regiment, 1894; Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 1899-1903; served during the Boer War, including operations in the Orange River Colony, February to March 1902 and operations in the Transvaal, March to 31 May 1902. He graduated the Staff College in 1904; Staff Captain for Intelligence, War Office, 1905; Brigade Major, 14th Infantry Brigade, 1905-1909; Assistant Secretary Historical Section Committee of Imperial Defence, 1911-1913, Secretary, 1913-1914 (employed on Official History of Russo Japanese War).

During the Great War he served again with the Leinster Regiment, being present during the action at Premesques at the Battle of Armentières, on 20 October 1914, where he was severely wounded. In this action the Germans completely surprised and thus overwhelmed the allies. Captain Whitton was wounded early on in the enemy’s advance and soon found himself a prisoner. However, the British rallied and succeeded in pushing the Germans back again. The regimental history states ‘The Saxons early in the afternoon streamed back through the mouth of the pocket which they had entered at Premesques. It was to this movement that Captain Whitton and Captain Orpen-Palmer owed their escape. Too badly wounded to be sent to the rear when taken, they were kept in a cottage during the fight and abandoned by the Saxons while the latter were streaming back in retreat. The two officers lay out till dusk when they returned to the cottage which they shared with wounded Germans, and stealing away in the misty dawn of the 21st, eventually reached the new British line, in a state of some exhaustion, having been without food or water or medical attention for over 24 hours.’ Stand To, A Diary of The Trenches, by Captain F. C. Hitchcock, M.C. further states ‘Captain Orpen-Palmer who had lost an eye with the 2nd Leinsters at Premesques in 14, and at the time, although blinded in both eyes, he managed to rescue another wounded officer, Captain Whitton, and to carry him back to our lines in safety. Some years afterwards I met a Sergeant in the 1st Royal Fusiliers who recalled the fact of seeing Leinster officers stumbling into their entrenchments. The blinded one, he said, was being directed by the one he was carrying.’

Whitton was put on half pay as a result of his wounds, March to December 1916; acted as master of modern VIth at Harrow for a term while on half pay; General Staff, G.H.Q., France, July to December 1918; specially employed War Office 1919 to 1922. He was a noted historian and wrote many books and articles, much of which was of military interest; including the two volume work, The History of The Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians), this being recognised as the definitive history of the regiment.