The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

An outstanding Second World War North-West Europe operations O.B.E., Great War M.C. and two Bars group of nine awarded to Colonel C. V. Stewart, Royal Engineers, late Royal Artillery, who was thrice wounded on the Somme in July 1916 and again at Ypres in June 1917: recalled in September 1939, he saw action in Norway and rose to be a Senior Transport Officer on D-Day

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; Military Cross, G.V.R., with Second and Third Award Bars, the reverse privately engraved, ‘Lt. C. V. Stewart, Somme, 14th July 1916’, and the reverses of the Bars, ‘Major C. V. Stewart, Ypres, June 1917’ and ‘Lys, 9th April 1918’; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut. C. V. Stewart, R.G.A.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Major C. V. Stewart); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, good very fine or better (9) £5000-6000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

View
Collection

Approximately 170 Military Crosses with Two Bars were awarded in the Great War.

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 February 1945:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in N.W. Europe.’

M.C. London Gazette 25 August 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry on 14 July 1916 during operations on the Somme. When unable to carry out his duties as Forward Observation Officer, he volunteered and led forward a party of infantry in the attack after they had been hung up, and remained to consolidate the position won. He was slightly wounded.’

First Bar to M.C. London Gazette 26 July 1917:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the Ypres operation. He showed great ability and accuracy in directing the fire of his own and other batteries. His calmness and coolness under heavy fire were at all times admirable, and when very severely wounded in the leg and sent to the hospital, his services were very greatly missed.’

Second Bar to M.C. London Gazette 16 September 1918:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy attack on 9 April 1918 at Lys. Under very heavy fire he saw to his only remaining gun being made useless, destroyed all papers and records, and superintended the evacuation of his wounded, remaining behind alone and covering the removal by rifle fire. He behaved splendidly.’

Charles Victor Stewart was born at Haverfordwest, Wales in January 1886, scion of a wealthy family with large tracts of forestry and property in northern Russia. Accordingly, on completing his education at Harrow in 1904, he joined the family timber business in Oraniebaun.

On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he returned to England and was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery, and was posted to 26 Siege Battery at Lydd. Embarked for France as one of the Battery’s Forward Observation Officers in August 1915, he saw action in the battle of Loos before transferring to the Somme. Here, on the opening day of the new offensive on 1 July 1916, his left shoulder was grazed by a sniper’s bullet, and on the next day he was hit in the throat by a spent shell splinter while saving three men who had been buried by a shell. Yet he remained on active duty, winning the M.C. for the above cited deeds just 12 days later, though once more slightly wounded, two pieces of shrapnel penetrating his back. Shortly afterwards, he was posted to 6 Siege Battery in Trones Wood as Second-in-Command, and remained similarly employed until his unit moved north that September.

In March 1917, Stewart assumed command of 179 Siege Battery on the Ypres front, adding a Bar to his M.C. for the above cited deeds that May, but he was again wounded in June, this time severely so, and evacuated to the U.K.:

‘Two days later they started again at 8 a.m. and a piece of shell about the size of a new penny got me in the bottom of my back and travelled along inside my left leg stopping an inch short of the knee. At the C.C.S. I was operated on by a surgeon who was in the same form as me at Harrow. He had done a wonderful job and when I came to at 4 p.m. I felt down my leg and it was still there. Movement was agony because of the stitches, but I slept and slept. I had to wait 28 or 30 hours at the C.C.S. till a hospital train with a cot car came along ... ’

After protracted hospitalisation and a period of recuperation, Stewart returned to France as O.C. 32 Siege Battery, R.G.A., and it was in that capacity that he won his third M.C. during an enemy attack on Lys on 9 April 1918. In this action his battery sustained losses of 14 killed, 22 wounded, four gassed and one prisoner out of a total strength of four officers and 91 other ranks. His four forward guns were only 900 yards from the enemy and his position was under heavy fire for four hours, but the remaining guns continued firing after the surrounding batteries had been captured by the enemy. He and 28 of his men then held a river crossing for four hours before retreating back behind British lines. In addition to Stewart’s M.C., the battery won another M.C., one D.C.M. and 6 M.Ms.




In June 1918, he was hospitalised for five days with trench fever, and in July he returned to England, but in the following month he was embarked for Russia, to take up an appointment as Assistant to General Ewart and as Liaison Officer to the Russian Artillery, in which latter role he was instrumental in developing Russian artillery in northern Russia and also took part in the battle of Kurgomin.

Stewart returned to the U.K. in July 1919, was demobilised and rejoined the family business, spending half the year in Russia and half in England but, in 1925, the business was nationalised and he subsequently worked back in the U.K. for a timber exporting business and as an arbitrator for the Timber Trade Federation.

On the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, he volunteered for active service and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, joining No. 4 Docks Operating Group. Sent to Norway in 1940, with 4 officers and 125 men, his unit was evacuated when Norway fell to the Germans. Having then been stationed in Iceland, and risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944, in a L.S.T. towing a landing pontoon, and proceeded on a reconnaissance of the port of Courcelles. After two weeks in Normandy he returned to the War Office and a week later was hit in the head by a splinter from an exploding “buzz bomb”, but he returned to duty as Assistant Director of Transportation to General Thorne’s Norway Liberation Forces, where he was advanced to the acting rank of Colonel in December 1945. Stewart was finally demobilised in August 1948; sold with a file of research, including copied typescripts of the Colonel’s fascinating wartime memoirs 1914-19, including Russia (43pp.) and 1939-45 (24pp.).