Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. group of four awarded to Acting Major D. V. Webb, Leicestershire Regiment, who was five times wounded in action during the Great War, and died of wounds at Magny la Fosse on 16 October 1918

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued, in case of issue; 1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. D. V. Webb. Leic. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Major D. V. Webb.) nearly extremely fine (4) £1,200-£1,600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The David Laban Collection of Great War Awards.

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M.C. London Gazette 15 March 1916:
‘For conspicuous devotion to duty. During an enemy attack [at Wieltje in Belgium] he was not only injured, but buried by the explosion of a shell. Though suffering greatly from shock, he insisted on remaining in command of his company for two days, when his C.O. ordered him to report himself to the Medical Officer.’

Duncan Vere Webb was born at the Curragh Camp, County Kildare, Ireland, on 20 March 1896, where his father Major Duncan Webb was stationed with the Army Service Corps, and was educated at Uppingham School. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Leicestershire Regiment, he served with the 1st Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front from 26 January 1915. He was badly gassed on 20 December 1915; was slightly wounded on 5 January 1916; and in February 1917 he was admitted to hospital with appendicitis, and afterwards was granted sick leave in England.

Webb was back in France by April 1917 as Officer Commanding a raid on enemy trenches with the object of ‘killing Germans and securing identifications’. An account of the raid in the War Diary says ‘several dugouts blown in containing Germans ... machine gun destroyed ... one prisoner brought back unwounded ... casualties: 1 killed, 22 wounded, 4 missing.’

Webb was wounded again in the trenches on 6 July 1917 but remained on duty, and then again during an attack on 23 September 1918, probably as a result of shell fire. In October, the Battalion was in action again in the area of Magny-la-Fosse, launching an attack in the early hours of 8 October 1918, advancing and taking ground over the next four days. It was during this assault that he was shot in the abdomen, possibly by machine gun fire, on the morning of the 10 October 1918. He arrived at the 5th Casualty Clearing Station on the following day, where he was operated on at once, but his wound was serious and he died on 16 October 1918. He is buried at Vadencourt British Cemetery, Maissemy, Aisne, France.

Sold with copied research.