Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Second Lieutenant E. W. Wells, Worcestershire Regiment, taken Prisoner of War during the German Spring Offensive, 30 March 1918

British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. E. W. Wells.); Defence Medal, nearly extremely fine (3) £60-80

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Prisoners of War.

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Eric Wright Wells was born on 17 July 1898 and was educated at Preston Grammar School, Lancashire. He attested for the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment at Preston on 8 August 1916, and was posted to the 4th Battalion. Applying for a commission on 3 March 1917, he was posted to an Officer Cadet Battalion, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Worcestershire Regiment on 30 October 1917. He served with the 2nd/8th Battalion on the Western Front, and was taken Prisoner of War on 30 March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive. His own report of his capture states the following:
‘At 11 a.m. on 30 March 1918 I was with two other officers (Second Lieutenants Lawrence and Spencelagh) and about 10 men in an advanced position about 400 yards in front of the position occupied by the remainder of the battalion in front of the village of Marcelcave, which was held by the enemy. In consequence of the withdrawal of the units on the flanks the battalion had been compelled to evacuate both the position where I was, and the main position in the rear taken in the day, but the rear positions had been re-occupied and in spite of heavy machine gun fire I and two officers mentioned above had succeeded in re-occupying our original forward positions with a few men.
About noon the enemy began to appear in scattered groups and later in larger numbers on the right of the village to our front, on the higher ground on the right, and in the railway cutting on the left. We kept him off by continuous rifle fire, aided by occasional bursts from a Lewis Gun, until about 3 p.m. when ammunition was practically exhausted. We were then subjected to a heavy bombardment with 5.9” shells. This lasted for about 20 minutes; meanwhile, the enemy had advanced well on the flanks, and was sweeping the ground between us and the position in the rear with frontal, enfilade, and reverse machine gun fire. After the bombardment had ceased a strong body of the enemy began to advance towards us from the front. We determined to try to evacuate. Lieutenant Lawrence and three men left the trench. The three men were almost immediately shot, and Lieutenant Lawrence returned and said it was absolutely impossible to get through the machine gun barrage over the 400 yards of absolutely open country which lay between us and the nearest cover. The party of the enemy attacking from the village threw out men on the flanks and surrounded our position.’

Wells was repatriated on the cessation of hostilities, and arrived back in England on Christmas Day, 1918.

Sold together with a photograph of the recipient laying a wreath at Leominster War Memorial in later life, wearing his three medals; and much copied research.