Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.M. pair awarded to Sergeant A. E. Smith, Monmouthshire Regiment

Military Medal, G.V.R. (265385 Sjt. A. E. Smith, 1/2 Mon. R. - T.F.); British War Medal 1914-20 (1951 Sjt., Monmouth. R.), the second with re-pinned suspension claw, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise generally about very fine (2) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Monmouthshire Regiment formed by Lt. Col. P. A. Blagojevic, O. St. J., T.D..

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M.M. London Gazette 19 March 1918.

Albert E. Smith, a native of Cwmearn, was most probably decorated for his services in the 1/2nd Battalion in the Cambrai operations of 1917, the regimental history recording that notification of his M.M. was received in January 1918. He had served in the same unit with the B.E.F., having being embarked for active service in early November 1914 (MIC entry refers), so he may well have participated in the famous “Christmas Truce” - an officer of the Battalion recalled that a page of the Pontypool Free Press was tied to a soldier’s rifle and waved as a flag of truce, the enemy, some 50 yards off, coming forward to exchange souvenirs.

More significantly, however, Smith was also the recipient of a “Gallantry M.S.M.”, an award that was announced in the London Gazette on 17 April 1917:

‘On 5 January 1917 during bombing practice, an N.C.O. throwing a live bomb for the first time struck the back of the trench with his hand, thereby losing hold of the bomb which fell to the bottom of the trench. Sergeant Smith, in spite of being obstructed by the thrower, managed to get to the bomb, picked it up and threw it over the parapet where it immediately exploded. Sergeant Smith has served nearly 26 months in France and been wounded.’