British Army Boer War & WW1 1914 medal trio to Private Stratton, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. W.I.A. and P.O.W. 1st Battle of Ypres, 1914. Died of Wounds, Germany 1915. Queen's South Africa Medal 1899-1902, 3 bars, CAPE COLONY, ORANGE FREE STATE, TRANSVAAL, impressed named 2365 PTE G.STRATTON. CLDSTM: GDS: King's South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, SOUTH AFRICA 1901 & SOUTH AFRICA 1902, impressed named 2365 PTE G.STRATTON. COLDSTREAM GUARDS. 1914 Star correctly impressed named (Medal sewn down unable to read top) C.GDS. with clasp, War and Victory Medals impressed named 2365 PTE. G.STRATTON. C.GDS. Court mounted comes with copies medal rolls, medal index card, War Diary Sept-Oct 1914, POW records, Register of soldiers effects, newspaper cuttings, 1911 Census, Commonwealth War Graves Commission certificate & research. George Stratton was born in 1883 at Warboys Huntingdonshire England. He lived there until he enlisted with the Coldstream Guards and served in South Africa. He is recorded as being “Dangerously ill” at Aliwali North on the 27th Dec 1900. On discharging from the colours, he returned to Warboys and in the 1911 senses is recorded as married with a child and a domestic gardener by trade. He would have been recalled to the colours of his old Battalion being the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. August 1914 they were in Aldershot & Part of 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division and landed in France with that Division. At the outbreak of the First World War, the Coldstreamer’s was among the first British regiments to arrive in France after Britain declared war on Germany. It suffered heavy losses in 1914, in two cases losing all of its officers. At the First Battle of Ypres, the 1st battalion was virtually annihilated George landed in France on the 11/9/14. He would have joined the 1st Battalion with the 1st Draft of 1 Officer and 88 men about that date. (Original diary destroyed in the fighting). The battalion suffered heavy losses up to the 1st Battle of Ypres when it was virtually destroyed. At the conclusion of the battle the Battalion consisted of the Lt Quartermaster and 60 men. George was wounded and taken prisoner on the 29/10/14. He eventually succumbed to his wounds dying in Germany on the 20/5/1915. The Battalion had been engaged in heavy fighting prior to the 29th October and on the day in question they remained where they were, under fire, and in trenches which were not connected and which they were not able to improve, as they had little or no wire and had only their small entrenching tools, many of which were lost. The Battalion had a front of some eight or nine hundred yards. The Coldstream were only some three hundred and fifty strong and on so extensive a front they formed rather a line of out posts than one of defence; they were far too few and too much scattered to resist any determined attack. The companies from right to left were Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 3, and except the last two were in separate trenches with considerable intervals between them. The small number of troops defending it were scattered in groups at some distance apart, and by reason of the buildings, enclosures, and woods that then covered the district, their view was obstructed and their posts often out of sight of each other; a mishap might occur to one of them and remain unknown to those near it even for some hours. The infantry, moreover, could not expect to get much assistance from our artillery. On account of the shortage of ammunition only some nine rounds were available per gun, and if an attack developed their fire was to be directed upon the enemy's artillery rather than on his assaulting columns. Punctually at 5.30 a.m. on the morning of Thursday the 29th October in foggy weather the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, covered by a screen of skirmishers, got up to within fifty yards of our defences without being seen, and made a rush upon the trenches of the right half of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards as well as upon the company of the Black Watch posted at the cross roads. Our troops were well on the alert and at once opened fire on the assailants, causing a slight pause in the attack; but the momentum of the advance prevailed and carried the Germans forward without any serious check. The struggle at that point lasted for a short time only, and as no Officer survived it the exact details of what actually occurred are not fully known. It is, however, known that at least two of our machine guns jammed, and that a considerable proportion of the ammunition was defective, the cartridges were too large for the barrel of the rifles, and many of the men could not use their arms; this circumstance was in fact largely responsible for the disaster of that day. Hence there were no means to arrest the progress of the enemy who, bursting through the line near the cross roads, or more probably through the gaps in the line, wheeled up north wards, took the company of the Black Watch as well as the two weak companies of our 1st Battalion in flank and in reverse, and, rolling them up, captured their trenches. The left half of the Battalion, at some distance from the Menin road, were also attacked at the same time by units of the XXVIIth Reserve Corps, but three resolute attempts to seize our position by assault were successfully repulsed. But our ranks were thinning fast and those who survived were in deep and narrow trenches where they could not use their bayonets. Thus, reduced to a small number and surrounded on all sides they were finally overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the greater part of the Battalion beat off the enemy successfully and with great gallantry, and later on, assisted by some stragglers, among them some Coldstreamers, they retook the trenches that were lost and restored their front. At the end of the action the 1st Battalion Coldstream lost all their eleven Officers present, and at the end of the day only some 60 other ranks were collected by Lieutenant and Quartermaster J. Boyd, the sole remaining Officer of the Battalion. Next day 60 more men joined who had wandered over to the Scots Guards and had fought with them when their own trenches were captured.
