The many medals that tell of WW1 soldier Percy’s incredible bravery
BUT DETAILS OF CIVILIAN LIFE REMAIN ‘CLOUDED IN MISTS OF TIME’
October 3, 1918, as the First World War entered its final phase, men of the 1/5 Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, reached Montbrehain.
The objective was to take the French village, some 46 miles from Amiens, and breach the final elaborate system of German defences that had made up the infamous Hindenburg Line.
One Forester in particular distinguished himself that day and, for his actions, Company Sergeant Major Percy Pearson, whose parents lived at Hill Street, Swadlincote, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, a gallantry medal then second only to the Victoria Cross.
The official citation, published in the London Gazette the following year, tells how CSM Pearson noticed that the German right flank was open: “He immediately organised a strongpoint, which during the ensuing counter-attack inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.
“When ammunition was running short, he organised a party under heavy fire and got ammunition to the firing line. It was owing to his fine actions that the company was eventually able to repel the attack.”
Although Montbrehain was taken by the Foresters, part of the 46th North Midland Division, they were exhausted and could not hold it, Australian infantry finally capturing the village two days later.
It was not the first time that Percy Pearson had shown himself to be a man of great courage. Six months earlier, he had won the Military Medal “for his gallantry and devotion to duty” at Kemmel in Flanders, when the Allies repulsed an attack by the German Fourth Army.
He had previously been awarded a wound stripe for actions on or around August 9, 1917.
In November 1918, three weeks after the war ended, Pearson, whose home was then in Woodhouse Street, Woodville, received a communication from the general in command of the North Midland Division, saying: “Your own officer and the brigade commander have informed me that you have distinguished yourself by conspicuous bravery in the field.”
Now those medals, and others won by CSM Pearson, are expected to sell for thousands of pounds when they are auctioned later this month.
Apart from serving with the Sherwood Foresters throughout the First World War, Pearson served in the Home Guard during the Second World War – he was the only Home Guard representative from Derbyshire to be invited to march at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 – and he was an officer in the Army Cadet Force in Derby until he retired from the voluntary role in 1955.
The unmounted group of nine medals – George V Distinguished Conduct Medal, George V Military Medal, British War and Victory medals, Territorial War Medal, Second World War Defence and War medals, George V Territorial Efficiency Medal and George VI Cadet Forces Medal – is expected to fetch between £4,000 and £6,000 when they go under the hammer at Richard WinON terton Auctioneers’ Collectors’ Sale at Church Street, Tamworth, from 10am on Tuesday, October 26.
Nick Thompson, military specialist at Winterton’s, said: “It is an exceptional World War One double gallantry group to an enlisted man from South Derbyshire. Pearson represented his regiment with distinction throughout the First World War and beyond, and then later in the Cadet Force role.
The man himself remains something of a mystery, however. Nick Thompson said: “His military service and phenomenal bravery are extremely well documented, but details of Pearson’s early life are still clouded by the mists of time, as is information about his later years.
“As such, there is still plenty of scope for further research to find out more about this exemplary local soldier who devoted himself to his country.”