A Great War M.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Commander S. H. Fish, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Commanding Hood Battalion, 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, who was killed in action in the attack on Loupart Wood on 25 August 1918

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Ty. Sub. Lieut. S. H. Fish, R.N.V.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Commr. S. H. Fish. R.N.V.R.) mounted court-style for display, extremely fine (4) £1,000-£1,400

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

Sidney Howard Fish was born in 1894, the only son of J. Fish Esq., Superintendent of the Blackburn Philanthropic Assurance Company, and was educated at Ashland High School under Rev. Owen Davies. Matriculating from school, he took up an appointment in the Wigan branch of the Union Bank of Manchester in Ashton-in-Makerfield.

On the outbreak of hostilities, he immediately enlisted as an ordinary seaman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and on 31 January 1915, after intensive training, was granted a commission as a Temporary Sub-Lieutenant in the newly formed Royal Naval Division where he was appointed to the Hood Battalion.

On 28 February 1915, the Division sailed from Avonmouth with young Sidney Fish comfortably berthed aboard the Cunard Liner, S.S. Iverna, en route to Port Said and Lemnos, their ultimate destination, unknown to them, Gallipoli.
The morning of 25 April 1915 saw the Anson and Plymouth battalions participate in the six-point attack on Cape Helles. The Division's first Victoria Cross was won by a sub-lieutenant of Anson during the beaching of the famous collier S.S. River Clyde. Further north, the 1st brigade, overshadowed by Australians and New Zealanders, landed at Gaba Tepe, better known as Anzac Cove.

By 4 May the entire division including the Hood Battalion was ashore and Sidney Fish was immediately pitched into action in the desperate battle of Krithia on 4 June in which the Royal Naval Division was involved in fierce fighting during the attack on the Turkish defences before Krithia in which the Collingwood Battalion was all but annihilated. Miraculously Lieutenant Fish escaped the carnage unscathed but the casualties incurred throughout the Royal Naval Division were so great that it necessitated the disbanding of the all but annihilated Collingwood and Benbow Battalions, their remaining officers and men being assimilated into the other Battalions of the Division. After the evacuation at the end of December, the 1st and 2nd brigades garrisoned the islands of Lemnos, Imbros and Tenedos, whilst the 3rd brigade saw more active service on the Salonika front.

In May 1916, however, the division sailed for France to become part of the B.E.F. and was renamed the 63rd (R.N.) Division, being brought up to strength by the addition of the 190th or Army Brigade. This consisted of the 1st H.A.C., 4th Bedfords, 7th Royal Fusiliers and the 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Sidney Fish, recently promoted to Lieutenant joined his comrades in this entirely new theatre of war.

At the end of September 1916, after a period of acclimatisation in a 'quiet sector' of the Western Front, the Division moved south to take part in the Somme offensive. At 5.45 a.m. on 13 November both Royal Naval brigades scrambled form their jumping-off bays and, in spite of heavy casualties, stormed three lines of German trenches. They were relieved two days later, having taken more prisoners and advanced further than any other division. In the fierce fighting to capture the German positions, Sidney Fish, like many of his comrades, was severely wounded and invalided back to England to recover from his wounds. Whilst on leave in England recovering from his wounds, he married, in January 1917, Miss Sylvia Hilton, youngest daughter of James Hilton, a mining engineer.

In April 1917, the division entrained for the Arras area in preparation for yet another offensive. On St. George's Day, 1917, at first light, as the barrage lifted, the British armies attacked on a nine-mile front. The Royal Naval Division, despite stiff resistance, took all their objectives - one Anson platoon continued to hold theirs against thirteen separate counter-attacks. Later that year, the division was switched to the north and on 26th October, in the ghastly Passchendaele offensive, the 1st and 2nd Royal Marines, Howe and Anson battalions attached, struggling forward sometimes waist deep in mud, against withering machine gun and rifle fire.

At the end of 1917 the 63rd Royal Naval Division held the infamous Flesquières Salient, which pushed out into the enemy lines and was always subjected to marked attention from German artillery, machine guns and snipers. Just before Christmas, in an action lasting 30 hours, determined attacks on Welsh Ridge (one of the features of the salient) cost the division 65 officers and 1,355 men, killed, wounded and missing. It was during this bitter fighting that Sidney Fish's leadership and gallantry were brought to notice in the course of one such particularly violent attack by the enemy. When his Battalion Commander and a number of officers were wounded during the early stages of the attack, command of the Battalion devolved on young Sidney Fish who by his outstanding leadership, managed to successfully fight off the German assault, whilst at the same time inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers. For his steadfastness on this occasion he was recommended for award of the Distinguished Service Order but this was downgraded to that of the award of the Military Cross which was gazetted on 1 January 1918. Promotion quickly followed and young twenty-three year old found himself advanced to the position of second-in-command of his Battalion as Temporary Lieutenant-Commander. Taking up his new appointment, he was soon called into action.

Three months later, in the great German Spring offensive of March 1918, the division continued to hold the Flesquières Salient whilst units on their flanks were overrun or destroyed. Finally, at 7 a.m. on Sunday 24 March, as the British Fifth Army continued to retreat, the six battalion commanders of the division, in the absence of any contact with higher command, ordered a withdrawal to avoid capture or certain annihilation. After quickly exhausting all its remaining reserves of men and material in this final effort, the German offensive finally petered out; the advance was held and on 8 August 1918, the British counter-offensive commenced.

During the German retreat, the Royal Naval Division were ordered to advance on the Grevillers-Loupart Wood section of the front, with the Hood Battalion as part of the 189th Brigade of the Royal Naval Division, immediately north-west of Loupart Wood. Just prior to the proposed attack of 24 August, Commander Egerton of the Hood Battalion, succeeded temporarily to the command of the 189th Brigade, leaving the twenty-three year old Lieutenant-Commander Sydney Fish to take over command of the Hood.

On the morning of 25 August, a heavy mist delayed the impending attack of the 189th and 190th Brigades. In the thick mist, the 188th Brigade made good progress but the 189th Brigade on the right of the attack came up against a heavily defended enemy trench system facing the south-west corner of Loupart Wood. This was to be the scene of vigourous resistance, entailing grievous losses to the Hawke and particularly the Hood Battalion. Here fell the two Battalion Commanders, Commander Jones of the Hawke and Lieutenant-Commander Fish of the Hood, both survivors of many more desperate encounters.

Taking cover in the numerous shell holes the Hood Battalion set to work with their Lewis Guns to master the enemy's fire. At about noon the German resistance broke and Sidney Fish urged his men forward to secure the German machine-gun lined trenches. This young man, who just three years previously had been a junior bank clerk in Wigan, had been decorated for outstanding gallantry and who now commanded one of the foremost fighting battalions in the British Army, led his men forward in a final charge into the foremost of the enemy positions. As they fought their way into the furiously defended trenches, the gallant young Commander fell dead, shot through the head. But success had been secured. The Hawke and Hood Battalions now commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Blackmore and Lieutenant Maudsley R.N.V.R., pressed forward, finally seizing the commanding high ground which had been the objective of the operation.

Lieutenant -Commander Sidney Howard Fish was buried at the Burquoy Cemetery, near Arras. He is also commemorated on the memorial in St Michael and All Angel’s Church, Wigan. His personal sketch books, produced before and during active service, including drawings and landscapes where the Hood Battalion fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, are held by Wigan Council Archives.

Sold with a fine large framed original studio portrait of Fish in uniform, several other photographs and named card box of issue for British War and Victory Medals.