The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals

Three: Private F. Slack, 1st Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), who was killed in action at Wasmes during the Retreat from Mons on 24 August 1914 1914 Star (L-7415 Pte. F. Slack. 1/R. W. Kent R.); British War and Victory Medals (L-7415 Pte. F. Slack. R. W. Kent R.); Memorial Plaque (Frederick Slack) very fine (4) £240-£280 --- Frederick Slack was born in 1886 at Nottingham and attested for the Royal West Kent Regiment at Maidstone, Kent in 1904. He served with the 1st Battalion as part of the 13th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division, II Corps during the Great War on the Western Front from 15 August 1914 and was killed in action at Wasmes during the retreat from Mons on 24 August 1914. Prior to this, the 1st Royal West Kents had engaged the enemy at Mons on 23 August. A German Grenadier present that day with the 1st Battalion, 12th Brandenburg Regiment wrote of his encounter with the Slack’s Battalion, south of Tertre, outside Mons: ‘The Brandenburgers deployed and advanced by rushes, fired at by an always invisible foe and losing men every time they rise... the enemy seems to have waited for the moment of a general assault. He has artfully enticed us to close range in order to deal with us more surely and thoroughly. A hellish fire broke loose and in thick swathes the deadly leaden fire was pumped on our heads, breasts and knees. Wherever I looked, to the right and left, nothing but dead, and blood-streaming, sobbing, writhing wounded.’ (The Advance from Mons by Walter Bloem) The enemy continued to advance however, shelling the 1st Royal West Kents from close range necessitating the order to retire to be given at 7pm. Later that night at 2am, II Corps were ordered to retreat into France to a defensible position along the Valenciennes to Maubege road, fighting a number of sharp rearguard actions against the pursuing Germans as they did so. At Wasmes, units of the 5th Division came under a heavy assault from German Artillery which began bombarding the village at dawn, followed a few hours later by an infantry assault by German III Corps who advanced in columns and were ‘mown down like grass’ by British rifle and machine gun fire. Soldiers of the 1st West Kents, 2nd King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 2nd Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, and 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment held off repeated German assaults on the village, and then, despite taking heavy casualties, retreated in good order to St. Vaast at midday. Private Slack was the husband of Jessie E. Gallant, (formerly Slack) of 19 Banstead St., Nunhead, London and, having no known grave, is commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial, France.