The exceptional Great War Battle of the Selle Attack near Vertigneul 23rd October 1918 single Military Medal with surviving 42nd East Lancashire Division Gallantry Award Card, as awarded to Private F. Peace, 1st/8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, Territorial Force, formerly Northern Cyclist Battalion and Northumberland Fusiliers. Peace was awarded a very hard earned Military Medal for his gallantry in action on 23rd October 1918 when he accompanied and supplied ammunition to a Lewis Gunner during an attack on the enemy’s position near Vertigneul. When the Lewis Gunner advanced his Lewis Gun and killed or captured the whole of an enemy machine gun crew, Peace who accompanied this man throughout, found himself subjected to heavy shell an machine gun fire but he nevertheless succeeded in supplying the Lewis Gun with ammunition, a task which under the circumstances called for the greatest bravery and devotion to duty.
Military Medal, GVR bust; (325115 PTE. F. PEACE. 8/LAN: FUS.)
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Together with the following:
42nd East Lancashire Division Gallantry Award Card, issued to ‘325715 Pte. F. Peace, 1/8th Bn. Lanc. Fusrs.’ This containing the full citation for his award of the Military Medal, a rare surviving document.
Certificate of Transfer to the Reserve on Demobilisation, issued in the name of Frederick Peace, dated 2nd October 1919.
Frederick Peace was born in 1897 and came from Dewsbury near Kirlees in West Yorkshire, and saw service during the Great War initially as a Private with the Northern Cyclist Battalion and in the Northumberland Fusiliers, he having originally enlisted on 9th December 1915 and been mobilised on 6th February 1917, before transferring as a Private (No.325115) to the Lancashire Fusiliers.
Present out on the Western Front with the 1st/8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, a Territorial Force unit which formed part of the Lancashire Fusiliers Brigade in the 42nd East Lancashire Division, it was present on the Western Front from February 1917. It was for his gallantry in action at Vertigneul on 23rd October 1918 during the Battle of the Selle that Peace won the Military Medal, the award being published in the London Gazette in June 1919.
The rare surviving 42nd East Lancashire Division Gallantry Award Card fortunately gives the full citation for Peace’s award: ‘For gallantry in action near Vertigneul on 23rd October 1918 during an attack on the enemy’s position Private Peace accompanied by another man, when the latter was advancing his Lewis Gun and killed or captured the whole of an enemy machine gun crew. Subjected to heavy shell an machine gun fire he nevertheless succeeded in supplying the Lewis Gun with ammunition, a task which under the circumstances called for the greatest bravery and devotion to duty,’ This citation was signed off by Major General A. Solly-Flood, commanding the 42nd Division. Peace was transferred to the Army Reserve on 23rd October 1919.
