Orders, Decorations and Medals

A most interesting collection of memorabilia appertaining to Company Sergeant-Major A. T. Green, Yorkshire Regiment, a noted shot who served with distinction in the 6th Battalion in Gallipoli:

assorted presentation pieces, comprising teapot, maker’s initials ‘C. E. P.’ and hallmarks for Sheffield 1906, approx. 190mm. overall height; milk jug, maker’s initials ‘J. & T.’ and hallmarks for Sheffield 1924, approx. 80mm. at highest point; and plated sugar bowl, the front with engraved inscription, ‘Presented to Sergeant Instructor T. Green by His Comrades in ‘B’ Company, Hovingham, March 1896’, approx. 105 mm. overall height, all with similar shell decoration

a presentation silver shooting cup, maker’s initials ‘J. D. W. D.’ and hallmarks for Sheffield 1907, approx. 180mm. at highest point of raised handles, the front with engraved inscription, ‘Presented to the Easingwold Miniature Rifle Club by Mrs. F.J. Haxby Robinson of the Galtres, Easingwold, 1908, Challenge Cup Competition’, together with related black-wooden base bearing six hallmarked shields with recipient names and dates from 1908-1913, three of them to ‘A. T. Green’; and a silver-framed photograph of Green seated with his rifle next to the cup

a fine series of shooting awards, comprising The Earl Roberts Challenge Cup Medal (North Yorkshire), gold, unmarked, the obverse with engraved date ‘1908’, 24mm.; The Legard Challenge Cup Medal (North Yorkshire), silver, with gold decorated surround and suspension loop, the obverse with engraved date ‘1907’, 22mm., and another similar, but without decorated surround, this dated ‘1908’, 20mm.; Miniature Rifle Society Clubs’ issues in silver and enamel (3), all bearing Birmingham hallmarks, 30mm., and a related miniature award, together with bronze and enamel issues of the same organisation (2), 30mm., and a related miniature award; Yorkshire Miniature Rifle Association issues in silver and enamel (3), all bearing Birmingham hallmarks, 25mm., together with a bronze and enamel issue of the same organisation, 25mm., this last engraved in the reverse field, ‘Easingwold M.R. Club, 1925, A. T. Green’; and other (untitled) shooting awards of differing design and diameters (4), all silver and bearing Birmingham hallmarks, two of them with enamel work, another with gold central shield, and the last with engraved central shield, ‘A. T. G., 1908’; Yorkshire Regiment cap badges (2), and a National Reserve (York) lapel badge, this last by J. R. Gaunt, in gilt and enamel

memorabilia from the Gallipoli campaign, comprising War Office (1915) linen-backed map of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the outer cover bearing an official stamp and the recipient’s inscription, ‘A. T. Green, C.S.M., ‘B’ Company, 6th Yorks. Regt.’; together with Green’s pipe with finely etched Yorkshire Regiment crest and ‘Suvla Bay landing, Aug. the 6th 1915’ above, ‘Evacuation Dec. 20th 1915’ to left, and ‘Egypt 1916’ to lower right

assorted documentation and photographs, including the Green’s old typed account of his military career, 2pp.; several newspaper cuttings, marriage and death certificates, etc., the whole contained in his original military travelling chest, bearing worn white painted inscription, ‘Cr. Sergt. A. T. Green ...’, a most unusual and interesting collection of memorabilia to a crack shot Gallipoli veteran, the vast majority in good conditi

Arthur Thomas Green enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment in August 1887, direct from the Royal West Surrey Militia - ‘the Battalion my grandfathers and uncles had been in’. Embarked for India in December 1889, he was advanced to Lance-Corporal in May 1892, in which year he attended a Mounted Infantry course with the 19th Hussars at Bangalore. Embarked for Upper Burma in October 1892, Green went on to witness active service in the Kachin Hills, one of 112 men from the 2nd Battalion so employed, and for which he received the relevant Medal & clasp.

Having then returned to his unit after six months furlough in the U.K., in September 1897, he was quickly employed in the Tirah & Punjab Frontier operations of 1897-98, and added the relevant Medal & clasps to his accolades. Advanced to Sergeant in April of the latter year and to Colour-Sergeant in March 1900, Green returned home to take up an appointment on the Volunteer Staff at Hovingham in April 1902 and was discharged with an “Exemplary” character assessment in 1908.

Finding employment as a School Attendance Officer in Easingwold, he immediately volunteered his services to his old regiment on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, and was appointed a Company Sergeant-Major in ‘B’ Company of the 6th Battalion, in which capacity he was embarked for the Dardanelles in early July 1915. Thus ensued his part in the unit’s hotly contested landings south-east of Nibrunesi Point in the following month, in which ‘B’ Company was ordered to use the bayonet only as it advanced against Lala Baba Hill - ‘officers and men fell thickly ... most of the Turks scattered, but some lay low in their deep narrow trenches till the attacking trops had passed, and then sprang up to shoot them in the back’ (Wylly’s regimental history refers). Indeed Major W. B. Shannon could only find two officers from ‘B’ Company still standing when he rallied the Battalion’s survivors for a final charge - ‘Enemy driven north-east to Hill. Casualties: 16 officers and 250 other ranks’ (the unit’s war diary refers).

In the Battalion’s subsequent attack on Turkish positions on Ismail Oglu Tepe on 21 August, Green managed to enter the enemy’s trenches with a force of about 100 men, and held out until the following day, though wounded in the head by a ricochetting bullet - he had been confronted by three Turks, managed to drop two of them but the third got off a round. Notwithstanding his wound, he remained with his unit throughout the remainder of the campaign, the 6th Yorkshires finally being evacuated in mid-December.

Following the Gallipoli campaign, Green served in Egypt and France, but was invalided home from the Somme in 1917, suffering from trench fever. Returning to his former employment in Easingwold, he died there in December 1947; his India General Service and Great War Medals were presented to the Green Howards Regimental Museum by his daughter in November 1985, together with his uniform.