Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.C. and Second Award Bar group of five awarded to Captain V. G. Gundrey, 14th (Swansea) Battalion, Welsh Regiment, who was awarded the M.C. for leading the successful raid on High Command Redoubt in November 1916, and the Second Award Bar for the assault across the River Selle in October 1918; he later becoming a successful film screenwriter, producer and director for Gaumont British Film Corporation, and was the screenwriter for the film of R. C. Sherriff's Great War play ‘Journeys End’ in 1930

Military Cross, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, unnamed as issued; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. V. G. Gundrey.); Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine (5) £2,400-£2,800

Dix Noonan Webb, December 2003.

M.C. London Gazette: 10 January 1917:
‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led a successful raid with great courage and determination. He captured twenty prisoners and accounted for many of the enemy.’

M.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette: 15 February 1919:
‘For marked gallantry and devotion to duty in the attack across the river Selle on 20 October 1918. He went forward under heavy fire to ascertain the position and finding two companies not quite on the final objective he led them forward and filled a gap in the line. He then went around the whole line and sited the fire trenches, his runner getting shot by his side. His coolness and capacity were of the utmost value and materially assisted in the success of the day.’

Victor Gareth Gundrey was first commissioned into 12th (Reserve) Battalion the Welsh Regiment on 5 November 1915, being posted to the 14th (Swansea) Battalion of the same regiment for service overseas, landing in France on 21 July 1916, and joining his battalion in the field on 24 July 1916. He was awarded the Military for leading the famous raid by the 14th Battalion the Welsh Regiment on ‘High Command Redoubt’ on the night of 17th November 1916.

The History of the Welch Regiment 1914 – 1918 by Brigadier General T.O. Marden gives further details:
‘An unusually large number of men was employed - six subalterns and 145 other ranks of the 14th Welsh, together with one subaltern and 12 other ranks of the Royal Engineers. For six weeks the raiders lived together and trained together on a replica dug in the reserve area. Every night a small party under a subaltern went out into No Man’s Land to familiarise itself with the ground, and to locate the position of the flanking machine guns, to deal with those trench mortars were brought up specially. The Divisional Artillery cut the wire on a wide front, so as not to indicate the selected point of attack. Corps artillery was placed to keep down retaliatory bombardment on the night of the raid, while the guns of the neighbouring Divisions also assisted by demonstration.

Within the 14th Welsh every detail was thought out minutely. Beyond the ordinary raid precautions such as blackened faces, removal of badges, dirtied buttons, use of knobkerries etc., luminous discs were carried to be planted at the points of exit from the enemy trenches, mats were taken in case the barbed wire was not sufficiently cut, dugout searchers were provided with electric torches and sandbags to collect documents, officers had horns instead of whistles to sound signals, policemen were stationed in No Man’s Land to bring back prisoners, our own front trenches were cleared to escape the retaliatory bombardment, and special duckboard trenches were laid for the three columns as the ordinary communication trenches were too waterlogged to admit of their being used by so many men.

Twenty minutes before zero on the night of 17 November 1916, the raiders were all assembled quietly in No Man’s Land. Only those who have taken part in an attack of this sort can appreciate the tense minutes of waiting when a chance enemy patrol might upset the work of weeks of training. But on this occasion, all went well. After a terrific burst of artillery fire for three minutes in answer to which the enemy retaliatory bombardment fell harmlessly on our empty trenches, the two waves of raiders swept over the German positions, the first making for the support trenches, while the second dealt with the redoubts. To their amazement the latter was found to be a concrete fortress with steel doors to the dugouts, while the surrounding trenches had concrete faces - a great contrast to our wretched efforts.
But the bombardment had played havoc with the redoubt, and when the Royal Engineers had also effected some explosions, this strong point was but a shadow of its former self.

Lieutenant Gareth Gundrey, who commanded the raiders, and who received the Military Cross for his gallant leading, wrote in an account of the venture:
“Like fish from shells the Germans were hauled forth on steel points from their hiding places. They were presented with the alternative of surrendering or being blown to pieces by hand grenades. Most of them chose the former, some of them suffered the latter. On the right flank of the attack there was a little hand-to-hand fighting, the result being that the German list of that dead was that night increased by a few names.” [In his personal notes on the raid on High Command Redoubt Gareth Gundrey makes mention of his orderly, Private John H. Jones, whose medals are included with this lot].

The party remained in the enemy trenches for 40 minutes, at that time almost a record for a raid. Twenty prisoners, a machine gun, and a hundred weight of plunder, containing much valuable intelligence, was the harvest reaped with the loss to us of two men killed by a trench mortar bomb as they were entering our trenches and eight men wounded. Congratulations poured in, including a special one from the Army Commander, General Sir Herbert Plumer.’

The Divisional Commander later issued a Special Order of the Day congratulating the battalion, and Sir Douglas Haig mentioned the raid in his next communique. The success of the Swansea Battalion in the raid on High Command Redoubt became the model example at the Second Army School of Instruction on how to train for and conduct trench raids in future.



Gaudry was awarded a Second Award Bar to his Military Cross for his gallantry and devotion to duty in the attack across the river Selle on 20 October 1918. He was severely wounded in action at Morval Forest on 4 November 1918, necessitating the amputation of his left leg, and was evacuated to England in the Hospital Ship, St. Denis. He relinquished his commission on account of wounds on 22 October 1919, retaining the rank of Captain.

After the war Gundrey became a successful film producer and director, and for most of his working life he was engaged by the Gaumont British Film Corporation. Amongst his more notable works was as screenwriter and director of ‘A Symphony in Two Flats’, in 1930, starring Ivor Novello; as screenwriter for the film of R. C. Sherriff's Great War play, ‘Journeys End’, in 1930; and as screenwriter and director of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in 1932.

During the Second World War, despite the loss of his leg, Gundrey was granted an Emergency Commission in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Administrative and Special Duties Branch, as probationary Pilot Officer, on 3 July 1941, and was promoted War Substantive Flying Officer on 3 July 1942, and Flight Lieutenant on 1 January 1946. He remained in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve until he relinquished his commission in 1954, retaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He died in Woking, Surrey, on 22 July 1965.

Note: M.I.D. unconfirmed.

Sold with two original photographs, a copy newspaper obituary, extensive copied research, accompanied by 19 original carbon copy field notebook reports from Gundrey to the Commanding Officer 14th Battalion Welsh Regiment, dated October 1918, in his capacity as acting Battalion Intelligence Officer, and including a copy of his own report of the Raid on High Command Redoubt, in which he makes mention of his Orderly, 34401 Private John H. Jones.



Three: Private J. H. Jones, Welsh Regiment, who served as Orderly to Captain V. G. Grundy at the Raid on High Command Redoubt, 17 November 1916:
1914-15 Star (34401 Pte. J. H. Jones. Welsh R.); British War and Victory Medals (34401 Pte. J. H. Jones. Welsh R.) light surface marks, good very fine,



John Henry Jones was born in 1881 and attested for the 14th Battalion, Welsh Regiment on 28 April 1915, and landed in France with his battalion on 23 December 1915. He was discharged on 23 December 1918, at the age of 38, having received a gun shot wound to the head in September 1918, being awarded Silver War Badge No. B167530. His home address was at 35 Queen Street, Treforest, Pontypridd, Glamorgan.