Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An unique Great War D.C.M. and Bar group of four awarded to Private H. Blakemore, 10th Hussars

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar (959 Pte. H. Blakemore, 10/Hrs.); 1914 Star, with (copy) clasp (959 Pte. H. Blakemore, 10/Hrs.); British War and Victory Medals (959 Pte. H. Blakemore, 10-Hrs.), together with the recipient’s cap badge, shoulder title and khaki lanyard, polished, thus nearly very fine (7) £3000-3500

Just eight D.C.Ms were awarded to the 10th Prince of Wales’s Own Royal Hussars in the Great War and only one of these with a Bar.

D.C.M. London Gazette 30 March 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry. When the enemy exploded a mine he went forward as a digger to consolidate the position. It was mainly owing to his coolness and example that we held the crater against the enemy bombers. On another occasion he did gallant work on patrol.’

Bar to D.C.M. London Gazette 21 October 1918:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty with a fighting patrol. While the patrol leader’s attention was occupied with the enemy in front, he noticed another party about to cut off the patrol on the flank. He at once made a bold bombing attack, killing three of the enemy and putting the rest to flight.’

Blakemore, who was from South Africa, first entered the French theatre of war in early October 1914, and quickly saw action in the First Battle of Ypres, not least at Zandvoorde Ridge, where the 10th Hussars lost their Colonel, two Majors and many men within a few days.

But it was on the occasion the enemy exploded a mine under the Hog’s Back feature, near the Hohenzollern Redoubt, on 2 February 1916, that Blakemore won his first D.C.M.. Having then added a Bar to his decoration, most probably for the advance on Amiens in August 1918, he was discharged in June 1919; sold with several copied portrait photographs.