An unusual ‘For Services as a Prisoner of War’ Medal of the Order of the British Empire, 1914 Star and bar trio and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service group awarded to Chief Petty Officer G.R. Munday, Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve who would be taken Prisoner of War during the fall of Antwerp on 9th October 1914 and would subsequently be held at Doberitz in Germany before being interned in Holland from 6th March 1918. He would later be awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire for his services whilst a Prisoner of War in the London Gazette of 15th February 1919.
Group of 5: Medal of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division; 1914 Star clasp 5th Aug-22nd Nov 1914; (L2/1068 G.R. MUNDAY. C.P.O. R.N.V.R. HAWKE BTTN. RN.D.) British War Medal and Victory Medal; (L.Z.1068 G.R. MUNDAY. P.O. R.N.V.R.).Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVR, (2/1068. G.R. MUNDAY. C.P.O. R.N.V.R. LONDON DIV.)
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Gideon Rock Munday was born in November 1882, and having enlisted at Bristol during 1903, would be serving as part of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve would join the Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division with a rating of Chief Petty Officer on 22nd August 1914. He would be taken Prisoner of War on 9th October 1914 during the operations around Antwerp,
The siege of Antwerp was an engagement between the German and the Belgian, British and French armies around the fortified city of Antwerp during the First World War. German troops besieged a garrison of Belgian fortress troops, the Belgian field army and the British Royal Naval Division in the Antwerp area, after the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914. The city, which was ringed by forts known as the National Redoubt, was besieged to the south and east by German forces.
The Belgian forces in Antwerp conducted three sorties in late September and early October, which interrupted German plans to send troops to France, where reinforcements were needed to counter the French armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). A German bombardment of the Belgian fortifications with heavy and super-heavy artillery began on 28 September. The Belgian garrison had no hope of victory without relief; despite the arrival of the Royal Naval Division beginning on 3 October, the Germans penetrated the outer ring of forts. When the German advance began to compress a corridor from the west of the city along the Dutch border to the coast, through which the Belgians at Antwerp had maintained contact with the rest of unoccupied Belgium, the Belgian Field Army commenced a withdrawal westwards towards the coast.
On 9 October, the remaining garrison surrendered, the Germans occupied the city and some British and Belgian troops escaped to the Netherlands further north to be interned for the duration of the war. Belgian troops from Antwerp withdrew to the Yser river, close to the French border and dug in, to begin the defence of the last unoccupied part of Belgium and fought the Battle of the Yser against the German 4th Army in October and November 1914. The Belgian Army held the area until late in 1918, when it participated in the Allied liberation of Belgium
By 5th December 1914 Munday would be confirmed as being held at Doberitz, Germany on. Later He would be interned in Holland on 6th March 1918 before being repatriated after the war, arriving back in Hill on the SS ‘Stockport’ on 17th November 1918.
He would be awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division in the London Gazette of 15th February 1919 for his services whilst a Prisoner of War. His medals were sent to the Singer Sewing Machine Company, King Street, Truro.
At the outbreak of the Second World War he would be living in Monmouthshire, and in later life would spend time in Port Macquarie, New South Wales Australia. He died in Croydon, Surrey on 8th March 1976.
