Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Gallipoli C.G.M. group of five awarded to Acting Leading Seaman W. J. Pierce, Howe Battalion, Royal Naval Division, for gallantry during the Third Battle of Krithia

Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, G.V.R. (SX.3.226 W. J. Pierce, A.B. R.N.V.R. Howe Bn. R.N. Div.); 1914 Star, with clasp (SX3/226 W. J. Pierce, A.B. R.N.V.R. Howe Bttn. R.N.D.); British War and Victory Medals (S.3-226 W. J. Pierce. Act. L.S. R.N.V.R.); Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (3/226 W. J. Pierce, A.B. R.N.V.R. Sussex Divn.) light contact marks, otherwise nearly extremely fine (5) £10000-12000

C.G.M. London Gazette 13 September 1915:

‘Showed great gallantry on the 4th June in remaining in the enemy’s trench and continuing firing, although wounded, to cover the retirement of other wounded men, and finally in carrying in a wounded man under heavy fire.’

William James Pierce was born at Eastbourne on 13 September 1882. He enrolled into the Eastbourne Company of the Sussex Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 14 January 1911, a butcher by trade. He was mobilized on 22 August 1914 and accompanied the Howe Battalion R.N.D. to Antwerp in October 1914. He re-embarked with the Howe Division as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. During the severe fighting in Gallipoli on 4 June 1915, he was badly wounded by gunshots to the buttocks and evacuated to hospital at Alexandria. Rejoining his unit at the end of August 1915, he spent some time in the Hospital at Mudros suffering from diarrhoea at the beginning of December. He was presented with his C.G.M. in the field at Mudros West by Major-General Sir A. Paris on 1 February 1916, and left the Dardanelles on the 22nd of the same month, for the U.K. on leave. In March 1916 he was posted to the 3rd Reserve Battalion at Blandford and transferred to the Royal Navy Barracks at Portsmouth.

Details of Pierce’s gallant action were published in an Eastbourne newspaper with an artist’s impression of his deeds to accompany the report. The following report was published after the war but the source is not known:

‘An incident at the Dardanelles - It has fallen to few even in this great war, in which opportunities for distinguished conduct frequently occur, to have won the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, a decoration which is coveted by all seamen. When on that eventful Sunday in August 1914, Eastbourne demonstrated so enthusiastically as the lads of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve moved out of the town under orders there was one among the company who was destined in a very short while to cause the country to ring with praise of his heroism. William James Pierce lived with his parents at 3, St Andrew’s Terrace, Norway, and he was known to a large circle as the civil, obliging and unassuming assistant employed by Mr Sydney Easton, butcher, at his Terminus Road shop, while to the local sporting community his name was familiar by reason of his football prowess. During those very anxious days when our thoughts were turned to the Dardanelles, alternating between hope and fear, Pierce, as an able seaman, was one of the many gallant men who strove to accomplish what at the outset seemed, even to the most optimistic, to be a hopeless task.

It was during these memorable activities that Able Seaman Pierce gave evidence of the noble qualities that underlay his quiet, unpretentious exterior. He was in the landing at Gallipoli, and, with others, was occupying an enemy trench from which immediate retirement was necessary. Comrades had fallen around him, and he himself had been badly wounded. Their capture seemed inevitable. The enemy was overwhelming, and fusillades from rifles and machine-guns were sweeping over the intervening space with all the fury of a lashing storm. To cease firing would indicate that the trench had been abandoned, and all hope of successfully retiring would then be lost. The supreme moment for heroic action had arrived. With a total disregard of his own wounds, Pierce continued firing while his wounded comrades slowly and painfully retired. Quickly and feverishly he loaded his rifle, clip after clip, sending the bullets in rapid rounds amid the pressing enemy while his comrades moved back to safety. Then came the moment when Pierce himself must leave. So far as he was aware he was the last living man remaining in the trench, but as he bounded from his position his attention was drawn to a comrade lying in agony near by. He had been too severely wounded to move out with the rest. Still unmindful of the danger to himself, and, although still bleeding from his own wound, Pierce determined, whatever the risks, to carry him back. It was a terrible task, fated almost inevitably to end in failure, but Pierce reckoned nought of danger, or even of death. It was sufficient for him that a chum was in agony and helpless. He raised the wounded man in his arms and stumbled blindly back to safety and shelter.

The achievement was one of the most heroic of that memorable affair of the Dardanelles. It was recorded in the leading newspapers and was the subject for a war artist’s drawing in an illustrated journal, but Pierce would admit of nothing gallant in his actions. Such is the way of heroes. For his bravery he was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.‘