IF YOU'VE LOOKED AT THIS MEDAL BEFORE AND WISHED IT HAD ITS TRIO...WELL, DUE TO A MINOR MIRACLE, NOW IT HAS !
An Excellent
'DELVILLE WOOD CASUALTY'
MILITARY MEDAL
&1914-1915 TRIO
To:
11495.Cpl.-Acting Sgt, ARTHUR KING.
5th King's Shropshire Light Infantry
who was
KILLED IN ACTION on 24th AUG 1916
(Battle of The Somme)
(M.M. LONDON GAZETTE 3.6.1916)(Mentioned in Dispatches. L.G. 1.1.1916 )
ARTHUR KING was from Wotton Underwood near BICESTER and entered France on 22nd May 1915.The 5th KSLI were positioned in the northern part of the Ypres Salient from November 1915 to February 1916, and this was at the time considered “to be the most unpleasant spot in Europe”.Their stint in the line had cost the battalion 2 officers and 43 other ranks killed and 89 other ranks wounded.
5th Battalion KSLI was a war-raised Battalion, formed in Shrewsbury in August 1914 under Lt. Col. H. M. Smith, from the mass of enthusiastic volunteers coming forward to enlist. Posted to the 42nd Brigade, 14th Division. After training around Aldershot, it landed at Boulogne on 20th May 1915, first coming under fire at Ypres on 31st May 1915, and then served entirely on the Western Front.
The British held about half of Delville Wood (Somme). The 5th K.S.L.I. along with other units of the 14th Division, with the task of clearing the rest of the wood attacked on 24/8/16. The 5th K.S.L.I. cleared their part of the wood, capturing two machine guns, two officers and 115 other ranks. But the 9th K.R.R.C. on the right flank were held up, this left the 5th K.S.L.I.'s flank unsupported , and the Battalion had to withdraw to its start line. The 5th K.S.L.I. lost seven officers and 51 other ranks killed. One of these was the unlucky Private Arthur King. Shown here above is the churchyard memorial and commemorative frame at Wooton Underwood church.Arthur is commemorated with eternal honour on the Thiepval Monument to The Missing, Somme, France. He was just 25 years old.
THE MEDALS ARE STILL WITH THEIR ORIGINAL RIBBONS OF ISSUE & ARE IN SUPERB EF+ CONDITION WITH ORIGINAL UNCLEANED TONE & COLOUR ARTHUR IS ALSO COMMEMORATED ON THE BRASS PLAQUE AT CAYNAM (St Mary) CHURCHHE WAS THE SON OF THE LATE GEORGE & MARY ANNE KING.
LEST WE FORGET. £2250PART-EXCHANGES WELCOME
5th Battalion KSLI was a war-raised Battalion, formed in Shrewsbury in August 1914 under Lt. Col. H. M. Smith, from the mass of enthusiastic volunteers coming forward to enlist. Posted to the 42nd Brigade, 14th Division. After training around Aldershot, it landed at Boulogne on 20th May 1915, first coming under fire at Ypres on 31st May 1915, and then served entirely on the Western Front.
The 5th Battalion saw some of the worst fighting of the war in the Ypres Salient in 1915, around Bellewaerde and Hooge and it was here on the Somme in 1916 that Pte Arthur King almost certainly received his Military Medal for gallantry in rescuing casualties under heavy fire after the severe German shelling of the British lines at Ronville, near Arras in March 1916. Here many 5th Battalion men were buried alive by exploding shells or wounded and killed by shrapnel and shell fragments. The unit was also engaged in the particularly vicious hand to hand fighting at Delville Wood in August 1916 and later at Flers-Courcelette. It was during the fighting in Delville Wood on 24th August 1916 that Arthur King made the ultimate sacrifice.
After much hard service the 5th then fought at Arras and in the attack on Vimy Ridge in 1917, returned in August to the Ypres salient to take part in the 3rd Battle of Ypres. It was disbanded at Jussy on 4th February 1918, its personnel going to other K.S.L.I. battalions. 5th Battalion Battle Honours: France and Flanders 1915 ; France and Flanders 1916; France and Flanders 1917 ; Ypres 1915*; Somme 1916*; DelviIIe Wood; Flers-Courcelette; Arras 1917*; Ypres 1917*. (9)5th Battalion KSLI makes fascinating reading right up to July 1916 and the start of the battle of the Somme, then on the 7th August the Btn made the long train journey to Mericout, they then marched 2 miles to Buire-sur-Ancre, on the 12th they marched to Fricourt, where they took part in ‘The Battle of Delville Wood’. On the 21st the Btn occupied a line of trenches on the edge of Delville Wood when a continuous bombardment from our artillery hammered the enemy lines during the 22nd and 23rd, At 5.45am on the 24th the attack began with the 5th Bt KSLI’s in the centre, 9th KRRC on their right flank and 5th Ox & Bucks on their left, the 5th Btns attack was successful and the enemy was cleared from the wood but it was temporary because their right flank was unsupported, and the Btn had to withdraw, they had captured 2 machine guns, 2 officers and 115 men, but our casualties were heavy, the Btn lost 7 officers and 194 men, -----------
The British held about half of Delville Wood (Somme). The 5th K.S.L.I. along with other units of the 14th Division, with the task of clearing the rest of the wood attacked on 24/8/16. The 5th K.S.L.I. cleared their part of the wood, capturing two machine guns, two officers and 115 other ranks. But the 9th K.R.R.C. on the right flank were held up, this left the 5th K.S.L.I.'s flank unsupported , and the Battalion had to withdraw to its start line. The 5th K.S.L.I. lost seven officers and 51 other ranks killed. One of these was the unlucky Private Arthur King. Shown here above is the churchyard memorial and commemorative frame at Wooton Underwood church.Arthur is commemorated with eternal honour on the Thiepval Monument to The Missing, Somme, France. He was just 25 years old.THE MEDALS ARE STILL WITH THEIR ORIGINAL RIBBONS OF ISSUE & ARE IN SUPERB EF+ CONDITION WITH ORIGINAL UNCLEANED TONE & COLOUR ARTHUR IS ALSO COMMEMORATED ON THE BRASS PLAQUE AT CAYNAM (St Mary) CHURCHHE WAS THE SON OF THE LATE GEORGE & MARY ANNE KING.
LEST WE FORGET. £2250PART-EXCHANGES WELCOME