A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.C., M.M. group of five awarded to Second Lieutenant John Harrison, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, late Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately inscribed ‘Lieut. John Harrison. Royal Warwickshire. Verchain. Oct. 24 1918’; Military Medal, G.V.R. (LZ-878 Ab: Smn: J. Harrison. Hawke Bn: R.N.V.R.); 1914-15 Star (L.Z-878, J. Harrison, A.B. R.N.V.R.); British War and Victory Medals (2.Lieut. J. Harrison.) mounted for display, good very fine (5) £2,600-£3,000

M.C. London Gazette 8 March 1919: ‘T. /2nd Lt. John Harrison, M.M., R. War. R., attd. 1st Bn.’

‘He displayed fine courage and leadership during the attack near Verchain on 24th October, 1918. He led his platoon with great dash, and effectively silenced and rounded up machine-gun posts, personally capturing two machine-guns and about thirty prisoners. When the advance was checked he supervised the organising and digging-in of his platoon, during which time he was severely wounded.’

M.M. London Gazette 19 February 1917. This award was for the attack on the Ancre River, 13 November 1916, where the Hawke Battalion was nearly wiped out.

John Harrison, son of Richard Harrison, was born on 25 December 1893. He joined the war effort on 17 November 1914 by enlisting in the Public Schools Battalion. John Harrison’s civil occupation is listed as a Clerk and he was living at home with his parents at 150 Caunce Street, Blackpool, and on the date of enlistment he was 20 years old.

On 8 January 1915 he was on the nominal roll of the P.S.B. and was then transferred to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as Ordinary Seaman (London) LZ/678, and on 24 April 1915 he was rated Able Seaman. The Navy at that time had more men than ships and, at the instigation of Winston Churchill the surplus had been formed into the Royal Naval Division to fight on land. The Public Schools Battalion was incorporated into the R.N.D. as ‘D’ Company of the Hawke Battalion, which the battalion’s historian, Douglas Jerrold, describes as a “miscellaneous, cheerful, enthusiastic and wholly undisciplined collection of babes, bookmakers and beachcombers”.

After initial training at the Crystal Palace depot, the Hawke Battalion moved to the R.N.D. base camp at Blandford, Dorset, in March 1915, shortly after most of the Division had sailed for the Dardanelles. In May 1915, Harrison was assigned to Hawke Battalion ‘B’ Company at Blandford. After training at the Depot in Dorset, Hawke was sent out to Gallipoli to join the rest of the Battalions. On 10 May 1915, together with Benbow and Collingwood Battalions, they embarked at Avonmouth. The Hawke landed at Gallipoli on 27 May 1915, and received its baptism of fire on 4/5 June when it relieved units of the Naval Division whose assault on the Turkish lines in the third Battle of Krithia had been repulsed with heavy casualties. On 1 August 1915, the R.N.D. handed over the line to 42nd Division. After the June disaster, strength was 208 officers, 7141 other ranks and by 29th only 129 officers and 5038 other ranks survived. Less than 10% of these would have been considered fit for duty in France in the quietest part of the front, but In Gallipoli at this time, all officers and men who could actually walk to the trenches were reckoned as fit.

John Harrison ‘soldiered on’ through August and September, but finally succumbed and was admitted to hospital at Gallipoli on 23 October 1915. On 26 November he was evacuated to Demanhour hospital in Alexandria with influenza. He was discharged to the Army Base at Mustapha, to Base Details Sidi Bishr on 9 December 1915, and, on 7 February 1916, rejoined Hawke Battalion. At the end of 1915 it was decided to withdraw all Commonwealth troops from Gallipoli and the R.N.D. withdrew from Helles between 7-9 January 1916.

The War Office then decided to transfer the R.N.D. to the Western Front. The R.N. and R.M. Battalions were all shipped into France through Marseilles. Howe and the 2nd R.M. were the first to arrive at Marseilles on 12 May 1916, followed by Anson and the 1st R.M. on 19 May 1916, Hood on 20 May 1916, Nelson on 22 May 1916, and lastly Hawke on 23 May 1916. The R.N.D. were brought through to Northern France and committed to the Somme Line where they were immediately engaged in trench warfare.

The R.N.D. was designated the 63rd Division. In addition the division’s three brigades were re-designated the 188th, 189th and the 190th. The 63rd (R.N. Division) was not committed to the battle of the Somme that opened on 13 July 1916. The division found itself in a support role right up to the beginning of November 1916. However, the division took losses right from the start of their deployment.

During this period the Army Command attempted to insert control over the R.N.D. but was resisted by an ‘esprit-de-corps’ that the Army never overcame. The division maintained its traditions, even to the use of ships’ bells, and the men regarded themselves as Naval Service first and foremost, even though they had to wear khaki and tote a rifle instead of being at sea. To bring the R.N.D. under control the Army Command appointed Major General Shute in 1916 and immediately on his arrival he ordered the R.N. element to wear Army rank insignia. The R.N.D. obeyed to the letter and wore the Army rank insignia on one arm and the Navy rank insignia on the other and was never quite dissuaded to do otherwise. It was impossible to keep kit and rifles clean in trench warfare but Shute demanded they do so and earned himself the name of ‘Schultz the Hun.’ General Shute abhorred the R.N.D. and it is true that the R.N.D. did not like him either. It all came to a head when the R.N.D. took over a trench system at Souchez from Portuguese troops and found it in a bad state with excreta all over the place. Shute inspected soon after the division arrived and wrote an official complaint about the 63rd Division trenches to the High Command.
A. P. Herbert, who later became an author, penned a poem about the incident and the R.N.D. later turned it into a song, based on the tune of ‘Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket,’ which was sung by the R.N.D. and later by the whole army. Shute’s reputation was encapsulated in the following words:

The general inspecting the trenches
Exclaimed with a horrified shout,
“I refuse to command a division
Which leaves its excreta about.”

But nobody took any notice
No one was prepared to refute,
That the presence of shit was congenial
Compared to the presence of Shute.

And certain responsible critics
Made haste to reply to his words
Observing that his staff advisors
Consisted entirely of turds.

For shit may be shot at odd corners
And paper supplied there to suit,
But a shit would be shot without mourners
If someone shot that shit Shute.

On the 13 November 1916 the 63rd R.N.D. (now placed under V Corps of the 5th Army) was moved along the Ancre River in an attempt to give the lagging Somme offensive another push. It participated in the opening attack at 05:45 hours under the cover of the artillery barrage. The leading battalions made good progress but at the cost of severe casualties from enfilading fire. By 06:45 hours Freyberg had managed to take his first objective along with hundreds of prisoners. On his left though the Hawke and Nelson Battalions had encountered very stiff opposition with the C.O. of the Hawke Battalion wounded and that of the Nelson killed. Hawke and Nelson, got machine gunned and shelled into virtual non-existence, mainly at the hands of the strong-point on Hawke’s sector that also created much havoc to 188 Brigade. This strong-point was unmarked on any map and therefore avoided the customary treatment from artillery preparation normally given to such structures. The Germans had been far from idle during their long stay in the area and they had constructed a well-connected system of tunnels using medieval tunnels and catacombs. This meant that in places machine gun posts were well concealed and specially adapted to provide enfilading fire against any attackers.

The original planning for the attack had utilised a number of tanks, but it had quickly been realised that with the ground so well churned by the bombardment that they would be more of a hindrance and had been sent back to the rear. Now, on the second day, two were again brought forward in an attempt to deal with the stronghold machine gun nest which continued to hold up the Division's advance to the west of Beaucourt. Both tanks soon became bogged down in mud but not before one of them had advanced far enough to be able to use its 6 pounder guns to good effect, and causing the German garrison of over 400 to surrender. That evening the line of advance was pushed further forward but it would take another few days of fighting to finally secure all that had been envisaged on the 12th. On the night of 17 November it started to snow and the final assaults of the battle of the Somme were launched the following morning.

Harrison, as Lewis Gunner, was probably stationed on the flank of his unit and survived the carnage of the battle. He was discharged to U.K. on 8 February 1917, to enter Cadet School where he was presented with his MM by the G.O.C. Blandford on 1 April 1917. On 28 August 1917 he was appointed to a Temporary Commission as 2nd Lieutenant and posted to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, with whom he was awarded the M.C. during the closing months of the war.

Sold with detailed research.