A rare Great War M.M. group of seven awarded to Sergeant A. W. Johnson, Rifle Brigade, a veteran of the Ashanti campaign

Military Medal, G.V.R. (9771 Sjt. A. W. Johnson, 3/Rif. Bde.); Ashanti Star 1896, the reverse of the arms engraved, ‘9771 Pte. Johnson, 2 B.R.B.’; 1914 Star (9771 Pte. A. Johnson, 2/Rif. Bde.); British War and Victory Medals (9771 Sjt. A. W. Johnson, Rif. Brig.); Coronation 1911, privately engraved, ‘9771 Rfn. A. Johnson, 1st Bn. Rif. Bde.’; Army L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (9771 Pte. A. W. Johnson, Rifle Bde.), this last with contact marks, otherwise generally very fine or better (7)
£1800-2200

M.M. London Gazette 27 October 1916.

Albert William Johnson, who was born in Farnham, Surrey, enlisted in the Rifle Brigade at Canterbury in November 1888, aged 18 years.

In December 1895, he was embarked for West Africa as a member of the 2nd Battalion Detachment, Special Service Corps, under Captain A. F. Acland-Hood, in which capacity he was actively employed in the Ashanti campaign, thereby becoming one of just 26 members of the Rifle Brigade to receive the Ashanti Star.

Having then been awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in April 1909, Johnson went out to France in the 3rd Battalion on 10 September 1914, among the unit’s officers being Lieutenant W. La T. “Billy” Congreve, afterwards the winner of the V.C., D.S.O. and M.C. - see Armageddon Road, A V.Cs Diary, for full details of the 3rd Battalion’s actions in this period. By the end of December - and having been entertained by a German juggler in No Man’s Land during the “Christmas Truce” - Battalion casualties amounted to ‘two officers killed, one died of wounds and 11 wounded, 104 other ranks killed, 19 died of wounds and 365 wounded.

Appointed Battalion Transport Sergeant in October 1915, Johnson was awarded the M.M. in the following year - most probably for gallantry on the Somme, where the 3rd Battalion was decimated in attacks launched against “High Holborn” between Guillemont and Delville Wood in August 1916.

Posted back to the U.K. in October 1917, he served in the 5th Battalion and was discharged in August 1919; sold with copied research, including his attestation and service papers.