Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An unusual 'sole entitlement' casualty British War Medal awarded to Sergeant C. F. Bullock, Royal Malta Dockyard Police (Dockyard Police Group) and Royal Garrison Artillery

British War Medal 1914-20 (225295 Sjt. C. F. Bullock. R.A.) nearly extremely fine £80-£100

Charles Frederick Bullock, a groom by trade, was born in Kempsey, Worcestershire, in 1872, and attested for the Royal Garrison Artillery on 20 February 1904 after marrying Miss Carolina Seolito at Malta in 1901. Released upon termination of engagement in February 1916, he joined the Royal Malta Dockyard Police and was soon engaged in maintaining British rule and protecting imperial and allied assets at the Hydraulic Dock, Msida. 

Malta in the Great War
Described as the 'halfway house' of the Mediterranean Sea, midway between Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, the island of Malta offered a valuable anchorage, repair facility and nursing station for hundreds of torpedoed warships and merchant navy vessels. Strategically crucial as an imperial fortress, the British kept control by stifling political development and controlling port operations.

Initially employed out of St Paul's Bay and Marsaxlokk on 'contraband control' operations, the Royal Malta Dockyard Police spent the first few years of the war boarding neutral ships and conducting inspections to ensure that any cargoes were not bound for Germany or Austria-Hungary. By early 1917, hastened by the creation of a Dockyard Worker's Union (1916), their attention shifted from outwith the island to inward, as civil unrest amongst the local Maltese populous began to rear its ugly head. Fuelled by inflation and a widespread belief that merchants controlling key commodities, especially grain, were achieving excessive profits - in spite of regulations - large numbers of Maltese began to disobey British rule, leading to considerable pressures being placed upon Bullock and his compatriots. Prolonged tension later turned into violent revolt during the Sette Giugno riots of 7 June 1919, when 4 young Maltese were killed by British soldiers.

Likely keen to avoid being further dragged into the nationalist quest for self rule, freedom and independence, Bullock returned to the Royal Garrison Artillery as Sergeant on 24 August 1918. Posted to the 102nd Company, he died of broncho-pneumonia at St. Andrews Hospital, Malta, on 1 December 1918, and was buried at Addolorata Cemetery.