The remarkable and tragic ‘Shot-at-Dawn’ connection Distinguished Conduct Medal and Meritorious Service Medal pair awarded to Acting Serjeant H.A. Collison, Military Foot Police who would receive a Meritorious Service Medal in the London Gazette of 1st January 1918 and would receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the London Gazette of 3rd June 1918 for his conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in making enquiries into the alleged looting of the dead, these taking him frequently into positions of great personal danger. Collison would go on to be shot dead by a deserter, Second Lieutenant John Henry Paterson of the 3rd Battalion, Essex Regiment on 3rd July 1918 whilst attempting to arrest him, Paterson would be shot at dawn on 24th September 1918 for desertion and for Collison’s murder.
Pair: Distinguished Conduct Medal, GVR, (P-3479 L.CPL. – A.SJT. H.A. COLLISON. M.F.P.) Army Meritorious Service Medal, GVR, (P-3479 A.SJT. H.A. COLLISON. M.F.P.) Court-mounted for display.
Condition: court-mounted for display, Good Very Fine
Harold Arthur Collinson was born in Staplehurst, Kent on 8th September 1877 and would attest for the Royal Artillery on 19th March 1896 in London. He saw exclusively home service before he was transferred to the Army Reserve.
He would then serve as a Police Constable with the Middlesbrough Borough Police from 1st April 1903 and lived at 178 Cannon Street, Middlesbrough which was the address of the Police Station. He would be promoted to Sergeant on 18th April 1912.
On 26th November 1915 he attested for service at Middlesbrough and requested his desire to serve with the Royal Horse Artillery, unfortunately this was closed and the officer commanding at the recruitment office stamped his form as ‘may be accepted’. On 3rd December 1915 he was accepted as a Gunner 126485 and sent to Woolwich, before transferring to the Military Foot Police as a Private on 11th July 1916, he then travelled to France on 29th July 1916 and within a short time had been promoted to Acting Detective Sergeant.
Awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in the London Gazette of 1st January 1918, he would go on to receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the London Gazette of 3rd June 1918:
‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He has served at the front during many engagements. His duties, which mainly consisted in making inquiries into the alleged looting of the dead, took him frequently into positions of great personal danger.’
Shortly after the confirmation of the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal Collinson would meet a tragic end. On 3rd July 1918 he and a Detective Lance Corporal Stockton were in the process of arresting a Second Lieutenant John Henry Patterson of the Essex Regiment when Patterson shot him dead.
Patterson was serving with the 3rd Battalion, Essex Regiment had deserted on 26th March 1918 and was not seen again until 3rd July when two military policemen, Lance Corporal Stockton and Detective Sergeant Harold Collison tried to arrest him as he crossed the wooden bridge at Pont Coulogne near Calais with his 22 year old French girlfriend Mlle Duquenoy to take tea and say his farewells. The military policemen kept watch for nearly two hours, Stockton on a railway embankment on one side of the house and Collison in a lane on the other. At around 9.30pm as it was getting dark, Paterson emerged from the house and Collison went to speak to him in the yard. Stockton was on his way to join them when he heard two shots and saw Collison fall to the ground, fatally wounded.
It later emerged that the first shot had wounded Paterson in the groin, the second entered Sgt Collisons chest, piercing both lungs and his heart. Stockton fled, claiming that Paterson fired a third shot at him, but returned with reinforcements and medical aid. By that time Paterson had hobbled away from the scene, supported by Mlle Duquenoy, and they spent two days and nights hiding out at Café Belge near Calais. He was captured a fortnight later by French police. Paterson would have been willing to admit manslaughter but the court-martial insisted he be tried on the murder charge and found him guilty. He then admitted five charges of forgery of cheques. He denied desertion but was found guilty.
He told the court-martial that he had gone into the yard with the revolver in his trouser pocket, intending to use it to scare off the two policemen and escape. It had a loose safety catch and had gone off as he attempted to pull it from his pocket. It had gone off accidentally a second time as he pointed it as Sergeant Collinson. Paterson would be executed by a firing squad at Boulogne at 6.27am on Tuesday 24th September 1918.
The court of enquiry into Collison’s death led by Brigadier General Radcliffe confirmed how he was killed and stated that he considered Collison partly to blame for his own death in not arresting Paterson when he first came across him.
Collison’s wife would receive her husbands effects on 26th October 1918, which included this Distinguished Conduct Medal and Meritorious Service Medal. She would receive a pension of 27s 11d a week for herself and children from the army, this later went up to 35/ when it included a war bonus. The police refunded her husbands rateable deductions (money he paid in for his pension) of £22 15s 5d. Collison’s medals would be returned to the records office.
