The unique Great War D.S.M. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant C. A. Pearce, Royal Marines, for service in Serbia at the defence of Belgrade and subsequent retreat of the Serbian Army in 1915

Distinguished Service Medal, G.V.R. (9294 Sergt., R.M.A. Service in Serbia); 1914-15 Star (R.M.A. 9294 Sgt.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.M.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (9294 Sergeant, R.M.A.); Serbia, Oblitch Bravery Medal, gilt; Serbia, Medal for Military Virtue, gilt, incorrect ribbon; Belgium, Crois de Guerre, ‘A’ cypher, mounted court style as worn, very fine and better (8) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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D.S.M. London Gazette 21 January 1916.

Charles Arthur Pearce was born on 22 May 1882 and enlisted as a Private in the Royal Marines on 23 January 1901. Ranked as a Gunner in November 1901, he became a Sergeant in September 1913 and Colour Sergeant in February 1916. During the early months of the war he served aboard H.M.S. Audacious; in February 1915 he was posted to the British Naval Mission in Serbia.

The purpose of the Naval mission to Serbia was to prevent the Austrian monitors and patrol launches from using the Danube. As the Serbians had no floating forces and were weak in artillery, the Austrian monitors were free to bombard Serbian positions at will. Directly after the re-occupation of Belgrade by the Serbians in December 1914, a party of R M.L.I. and seamen were sent hither from Malta. This mission was strengthened in February 1915 by the arrival from England of eight 4.7-in, guns, accompanied by eight R.M.A. ratings under Sergeant C. A. Pearce. The eight 4.7's were organised in four batteries of two guns each, the R.M.A. providing the higher numbers of No. 1 Battery, and seamen those of the remainder. The 4.7 batteries were widely separated to command the rivers, only the R.M.A. No. 1 Battery, under Sergeant Pearce, being close to Belgrade itself, its position being on Veliki Vrachar Hill, on the south-east of the city. By 1 October the Austro-Germans had effected a great concentration opposite Belgrade, and on the morning of the 3rd a terrible bombardment was opened. It was estimated that in the first 24 hours some forty-eight thousand shells fell upon the doomed city.

No one had better cause to appreciate the magnitude of Belgrade's bombardment than the occupants of No. 1 Battery on Veliki Vrachar Hill. Commanded by a Serbian artillery officer, with another Serbian officer as second-in command, the battery was composed of Sergeant Pearce with a Corporal and four gunners of the Royal Marines, and a small crew of Serbian soldiers to assist with the heavy work. Of the latter Sergeant Pearce said he could not speak too highly. For the first four days the battery reserved its fire, waiting for the first sign of the enemy to attempt to cross the river. On the 7th they could wait no longer, but opened fire on the batteries along the river front, and for the rest of that day carried on an engagement with no less than 24 Austrian guns. The inevitable happened. As soon as the battery opened fire the aeroplanes corrected the range, and the enemy shells, instead of passing overhead, began to fall upon it. They managed to keep up the unequal contest all day long, and most of the next day, until those two guns were all that was left of Belgrade's defences, and nearly the whole of the Austrian artillery was concentrated upon them. Inevitably, on the night of the 7th, the No. 1 gun was put out of action, and on the following day the No. 2 gun suffered a similar fate. In face of heavy fire, the breech blocks and carriers of both guns were stripped, and under cover of darkness the gun detachments retired to a small village a few miles from Belgrade. In all two were killed and fourteen wounded, these remarkably small casualties being attributed to the excellent construction of the battery.

Sergeant Pearce and his gallant little team now joined the rapid retreat of the Serbian army which began on the 12th November, in the face of the advancing Austrians and Bulgarians. Reaching Ipek in Montenegro in late November the most difficult part of the journey remained to be made. The way was across the mountains of Albania to Scutari. Winter had set in, the tracks were so bad and so congested with the debris of the Serbian army that all wheeled transport had to be abandoned, and there was in consequence a great shortage of food. On 13 December the men of the batteries reached Podgaritza, on the 15th Scutari, and on the 19th San Giovanni di Medua. Sergeant Pearce was by now ill with dysentery but the remainder of the party were embarked on H.M.S. Dartmouth and proceeded to England.

Sergeant Pearce and Corporal A. H. Turner were each awarded the D.S.M., the six Gunners all being mentioned in despatches. Pearce was uniquely awarded the Gold Medal for Bravery and the Gold Medal for Military Virtue, the other members of the battery between them being awarded a further 14 Serbian decorations, probably making them the most highly decorated battery in the history of the Royal Marine Artillery. Colour Sergeant Pearce was awarded the R.N. Long Service medal in October 1916 and was commissioned in September 1917. He was further decorated with the Belgian Croix de Guerre for his services with the R.M.A. Siege Guns in 1917. Temporary Lieutenant Pearce was placed on the Retired List in July 1919; appointed to the Special Reserve of Officer in November 1920, this being cancelled on 4 February 1921 on his being granted a permanent commission in the Army Educational Corps. Pearce died on 16 September 1966.

With copied service papers which confirm all his medals and copied research, and with the book: By Sea and Land, Some Naval Doings, by E. Hilton Young, M.P.