Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Battle of Neuve Chapelle 1915’ D.C.M. group of four awarded to Private S. C. Climpson, Northamptonshire Regiment

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (9359 Pte., 2/North. Regt.); 1914 Star, with clasp (9359 Pte., 2/North’n. R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (9359 Pte., North’n. R.) fine and better (4) £1400-1600

D.C.M. London Gazette 30 June 1915. ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty at Neuve Chapelle on 10th March 1915. When communication was rendered impossible owing to damage to cable by shell and rifle fire, he in company with another man, repeatedly endeavoured to repair the line, and on failing to do so they brought back an important message from the trenches under heavy shell and machine-gun fire’.

Stanton C. Climpson, 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 8 November 1914. His and Private Luddington’s actions at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, 10 March 1915, are vividly portrayed and described in a lengthy account in Deeds that Thrill the Empire: At 9.00a.m. the adjutant asked the two men to take an urgent message to Brigade Headquarters as the telephone line was out of action; to reach H.Q. before 10.00a.m. ‘... About 100 yards behind our trenches was a deep ditch and, with rifle and machine-gun bullets whistling past their heads, Climpson and Luddington spurted across the open and jumped into it, and into about five feet of water as well. Once in the ditch, however, they were comparatively safe, and making their way along it for about nine hundred yards, they found themselves in an old German communication trench, which was as full of water as the ditch. Another three hundred yards of walking - or rather of wading - brought them to the road running between Neuve Chapelle and Armentières. This, with the exception of the sprint from the trenches to the ditch, was the most dangerous part of their journey, since the road, which afforded but very little cover, was being heavily shelled, and for nearly half a mile they had to make their way along it with shrapnel bursting all about them. At length, with five minutes to spare, they reached their destination, soaked to the skin and so utterly exhausted that, as soon as they had delivered their message, they lay down and fell asleep’. Climpson was later transferred to the Royal Engineers and was subsequently awarded the Silver War Badge. Sold with copied extracts from Deeds that Thrill the Empire and m.i.c.