Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. group of four awarded to Acting Sergeant A. H. Grimmitt, Royal Army Medical Corps

Military Medal, G.V.R. (58330 Cpl. A. H. Grimmitt. 142/F.A. R.A.M.C.); 1914-15 Star (58330, Cpl. A. A. [sic] Grimmett [sic], R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (58330 A.Sjt. A. H. Grimmitt. R.A.M.C.) light contact marks, generally very fine (4) £240-£280

M.M. London Gazette 3 June 1916.

Albert Harry Grimmitt was born in Beckford, Gloucestershire, around 1886, and is recorded in 1911 as an unmarried policeman living and working in Middlesbrough. Appointed to the 142nd Field Ambulance during the Great War, his unit served on the Western Front from 24 August 1915 as part of 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, and was heavily engaged as a mobile front line medical unit at the Battle of Loos. Transferred to the Somme, Grimmitt was awarded the Military Medal in June 1916 and was likely present on 1 July 1916 when thousands of Allied soldiers made their way along the casualty evacuation chain from Regimental Aid Posts to the heavily over stretched Field Ambulances.

Raised Acting Sergeant, Grimmitt survived the war and returned home to the Midlands. He died on 17 June 1930 at the North Ormesby Hospital in Middlesbrough.