BURIED ALIVE

An outstanding ‘London Blitz’ George Cross – the civilian equivalent of the Victoria Cross - awarded to Sub. Lieutenant Jack Maynard Cholmondeley Easton of Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve will be offered at Noonans Mayfair in their auction of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria Today (Wednesday, April 10, 2024). It is expected to fetch £80,000-120,000 and is being sold on behalf a deceased estate.

Sub. Lieutenant J. M. C. Easton was a member of the Admiralty’s secretive Land Incident Section who was buried alive by the detonation of a parachute mine in London’s East End in October 1940. When eventually pulled from the debris, he was found to have suffered a fractured skull, a broken back, and broken legs: his gallant assistant – Ordinary Seaman Bennett Southwell – was less fortunate, his decapitated body being discovered six weeks later.

Later, Easton was quoted in Wavy Navy: By Some Who Served, where he said: “Of course, I did not know this would be my last assignment in mines disposal work when I left the Admiralty before breakfast that morning and was carried by car to Hoxton. At the back of the minds of us who did this work was an acceptance that there probably would be a ‘last.’ In defence of our sanity, perhaps, to stop us leaping from the cars that carried us to each assignment, or maybe just in case we began to think ourselves heroes, we did not dwell on this probability. It was there. But suppressed. If and when the ‘last’ mine came ... well it came. Several of our section had found it; some, less fortunate than I, did not live to tell the story. My ‘last’ buried me in rubble for several hours with my back broken and other injuries, and it kept me in plaster for the best part of a year.”

Nimrod Dix, Head of Medal Department and Deputy Chairman of Noonans commented: “The Second World War was really the first war that civilians were on the frontline in the cities that were being attacked during the Blitz. As a result of this, it was decided that there was a need for a new gallantry award and the George Cross was introduced by George VI in 1940.”
He continued: “Easton was no stranger to the nerve-wracking business of mine disposal, having earlier made safe 16 such devices, including one which had crashed through the roof of the Russell Hotel in Bloomsbury and ended up hanging from the chandelier in the main dining room: the grateful hotel owner presented Easton with a cheque for £140 - and an offer of Sunday lunch for his family for life - but both had to be rejected ‘as a matter of honour.”

Jack Maynard Cholmondeley Easton was born at Maidenhead, Berkshire on 28 May 1906 and was educated at Brighton College and Pangbourne Nautical College, prior to training as a solicitor and joining his grandfather’s law firm in the City of London.

Remarkably, after a year in plaster, Easton made a full recovery, although on being discharged from hospital he had lost all his hair. As it happened, the head of L’Oreal, the beauty products company, was a client of the family law firm and he was duly consulted for advice: after daily administering the recommended – but far from pleasant – concoction to his scalp, Easton was delighted to see the gradual return of his hair. Better still was the news of his George Cross. The Admiralty sent round three cases of champagne to his hospital and told him to listen to the 6 p.m. news, in which the award was announced; he was invested by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on 23 September 1941.
Easton subsequently served as First Lieutenant of the motor minesweepers MMS 6 (June -August 1942) and MMS 66 (August 1942-February 1943), prior to taking command of the MMS 22 in the latter month. And he led a minesweeping flotilla off Normandy in June 1944, when a new type of German oyster mine detonated under his ship and wounded him for a second time.

Easton returned to his family’s law firm in the City of London after the war and was a committee member of – and legal adviser to – the V.C. and G.C. Association, 1957-94. He died at Marchwood, Chichester, Sussex in December of the latter year, aged 88, his obituary notice in The Daily Telegraph describing him as ‘a witty extrovert’ who was ‘highly attractive to women.’

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