Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A 1918 M.M. group of three awarded to Private G. Kitchen, 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, one of six brothers who all fought for King and Country on the Western Front during the Great War

Military Medal G.V.R. (7939 Pte. G. Kitchen. 1/Linc: R.); 1914 Star (7939 Pte. G. Kitchen. 1/Linc: R.); British War Medal 1914-20 (7939 Pte. G. Kitchen. Linc. R.) dark toned, nearly extremely fine (3) £200-£240

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Great War Military Medals to the Lincolnshire Regiment.

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M.M. London Gazette 16 July 1918

George Kitchen was born in Tattershall, Lincolnshire, the son of Samuel Kitchen, a farm foreman and his wife Elizabeth. He enlisted in the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1907 and served with them in India prior to the Great War. On 13 August 1914, he was one of the very small percentage of ‘old soldiers’ of the 1st Battalion who left Victoria Barracks, Portsmouth to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. He was to serve on the western front with his battalion for the duration of the war. The schedule number of his M.M. indicates an award for the first phase of the German Spring Offensive of 1918 and was very likely in connection with the Battle of St. Quentin on 21 March 1918 where the 1st Battalion stood firm in the face of a sustained German assault in dense fog, after which a message was received from the Brigade Commander to say that the Battalion ‘had done magnificently, and had saved the situation.’

An article in the Boston Guardian of 23 September 1916 relates how six Kitchen Brothers (each photographed) were, at that time, serving at the Front in France, four with the Lincolnshire Regiment, the two eldest also being Boer War veterans.