Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

British War Medal 1914-20 (25-689 Sjt. J. Wilkinson. North’d Fus.) nearly extremely fine £400-£500

John Wilkinson was born in Blyth, Northumberland, and attested there for the Northumberland Fusiliers. He served with the 25th (2nd Tyneside Irish) Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 1916, and was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, on which date the Battalion, alongside the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Tyneside Irish Battalions as part of the 103rd Brigade, 34th Division, was tasked with attacking the German positions at La Boisselle. Advancing at 7:45 a.m. the Battalion came under heavy fire from the moment the assembly trenches were left, but the advance was maintained until ‘only a few scattered soldiers were left standing , the discipline and courage of all ranks being remarkable’. The other Tyneside Irish Battalions fared no better: the 1st Tyneside Irish came under intense machine gun fire, and only 1 officer with a handful of men reached the objective before being forced to retire; the 3rd Tyneside Irish ‘advanced as if on parade under heavy machine gun and shell fire’, with small parties holding out in shell holes in No Man’s Land; and the 4th Tyneside Irish managed to reach the objective, before being forced to retire, having suffered over 70% casualties. In total the tremendous casualties inflicted upon the four Tyneside Irish battalions were among the worst ever recorded on the Somme, with the 2nd Tyneside Irish suffering 487 casualties, and the four Battalions in total suffering well over 2,000 casualties

Wilkinson was amongst those killed. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.