Wallis & Wallis
Lot 1
Four: MM, Geo V first type (275935 Pte T McLean, 1/7 Manch R-TF), 1914-15 star (named 3245 Pte T McLean Manch R (duplicate)), BWM and Victory. VF, mounted as worn. MM LG 16.8.1917, photo copy of "The 42nd East Lancashire Division" by Gibbon (1920), page 95 "At the end of June the 7th Manchesters were instructed to supply a party to raid Wigan Copse and bring back three prisoners. Lieut A Hodge...was chosed to carry out the raid...at 11pm on July 3 the guns opened on the enemy’s lines behind the copse, and Hodge’s Platoon, after a crawl of more than half an hour, rushed the copse. Its occupants tried to bolt, but the box barrage hemmed them in and they had to choose between fighting and surrender. One young German, who had been lying in the grass on outpost duty, was so scared that in his fright he rose and attached himself to the Manchesters, until Hodge took him by the scruff of the neck and flung him to the man behind. But no one wanted the Boche, so he was flung from one to another until finally one of the covering party held him captive. After five minutes...in which none of the 7th was hurt, though a number of enemy had been bayonetted or shot by the officer’s revolver, Hodge returned with the three prisoners indented for. It had been a model raid". Hodge received the MC for this action with MMs being awarded to Sgt McHugh and Privates McLean and Braithwaite.
