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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

The Seven Heroes of Moeuvres


muckandbullets

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Yes mate i take it she is the brains of the family lol. Its a fair point she made. I dont think it would be wise rummaging in his pocket for his watch with all the stuff going on around him. He would have to keep his wits about him.

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Sam,Get The Wife to sign up. She sounds the Expert!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Good to see this info Im his Great Grandson and doing research on him. I have just written a short story about him. i am pleasantly suprised at all the info that is about on him. I am planning on doing a web site about him and his men. If its possible the name of the dead soldier and hopefully info on the others if anyone can help that would be great. I think it is only fair that they all get the credit they deserved. The main prob is the length of time and a fire at the main records office. I know one of his men died but not sure who and also private D Mc Farlane Glasgow was badly wounded. The other names are private J Fleming Glasgow private W Gray Kilwinning private W J Jones Peebles private J L Phillips Glasgow. The most recent info i have is a pipers piece called the seven heroes of Moeuvres march found by a friend of mine after a tip off about it. if you want a good pic of him go to piccasa web its him when he was in the highland cyclist battallion. I would post it here but having probs uploading it. cheers

Hello Steve

Ref your Ggrandfather coming from Fife and in a highland cyclist battallion,was it the Black Watch Cyclist Bn? if so there is quite a few photos of the Cylist Bns on the forums.

Joe

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Good to see this info Im his Great Grandson and doing research on him. I have just written a short story about him. i am pleasantly suprised at all the info that is about on him. I am planning on doing a web site about him and his men. If its possible the name of the dead soldier and hopefully info on the others if anyone can help that would be great. I think it is only fair that they all get the credit they deserved. The main prob is the length of time and a fire at the main records office. I know one of his men died but not sure who and also private D Mc Farlane Glasgow was badly wounded. The other names are private J Fleming Glasgow private W Gray Kilwinning private W J Jones Peebles private J L Phillips Glasgow. The most recent info i have is a pipers piece called the seven heroes of Moeuvres march found by a friend of mine after a tip off about it. if you want a good pic of him go to piccasa web its him when he was in the highland cyclist battallion. I would post it here but having probs uploading it. cheers

There is another thread in this forum erroneously headed Corporal D.Cooper VC, HLI

In case you have not spotted it here is my response to questions asked:

Any details of Cpl Hunter? Where he lived? Was he a regular?

David Ferguson HUNTER VC was born on 28 November 1891 at Kingseat, Dunfermline, Scotland.

He was a Miner and joined the Territorials in 1910, serving with the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Two months after the War began he volunteered for a Cyclist Battalion, later transferring to the Royal Engineers before serving in France in 1916. He was wounded and spent six weeks in hospital. In mid- September 1918 he joined the 1/5th Bn, ( City of Glasgow) Highland Light Infantry, with whom he was awarded his VC - his service number with HLI was 43247. See LG 23 October 1918 for the action 16-17 September 1918.

HUNTER was promoted to Sergeant and was presented with his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace 16 November 1918.

After the Great War he returned to his Mining job at Kingseat but left that and was later employed at Steelend. Between 1921 and 1951 he was a Country Postman. In 1951 aged sixty he was employed as a store-keeper at Comrie Colliery for five years. His address during this period was 40 Haig Crescent, Dunfermline. He died of a heart attack in 1965 and is buried in Dunfermline Cemetery..

For further details see The Road to Victory 1918 - by Gerald Gliddon in The VC's of the First World War series.

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The pic is from his time in the Highland cyclist Battalion mate. He was with them before he transfered to the highland light infantry.

Hello Steve

Which Bn of the HCB was your relative in?

Joe

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Hi ARMAGH and PHILIP WILSON,

You probably know this, go to Steve's Profile to see a link you can get where he wrote a short story about his GG Grandfather HUNTER VC. I have seen the story on the link.

Regards

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Hi guys i have been busy thanks for the info. I will be talking to my mate about the website in the next couple of days. Im not sure what cyclist battallion he was in. Im still looking out for info. Cheers

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  • 5 years later...
  • 2 years later...

Hi. Terence Mulhill was my grandfather's cousin. My grandad told my mother he was next to his cousin when he died. My grandad was James Daly from Longford Ireland. Mulhill's parents (my grandfather's sister was his mother) came from Longford but emigrated to Leith where he was born in 1899.

I am not sure if my grandfather used his real name. He had another sister called Reynolds in Dundee. 

Does anyone know the name of all seven? Obviously my grandad survived.

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Hello Stevie J

 

You may already know this, but according to the Register of the Victoria Cross he was born on 28 November 1891 and died on 14 February 1965.

 

Ron

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Hi Ron Clifton. I am going to the National Archives in Kew tomorrow. Are there any documents you could steer me towards that might have information about the other six men? I see some names mentioned but don't recognise my grandad. Of course "he never told them" except that his cousin Terence Mulhill died next to him.

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https://www.buzz50.com/forum/2-serious-discussion/1549516-the-way-we-have-commemorated-world-war-i-has-been-disappointing

 

There is an official communique here. Mulhill died trying to break out. I'm not sure if the man he was with was my grandfather, as officially his "mate" died.

I suppose it is possible my grandfather was in the 7 Munsters the HLI relieved and the coincidence of meeting got exaggerated. Though I doubt there was much time for chit-chat.

Edited by Longford James
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You might find some information in the following files:

52 DIVISION 
WO 95/2890 Adjutant and Quarter-Master General 1918 Apr. - 1919 May  
WO 95/2898 157 Infantry Brigade   
WO 95/2898 Headquarters 1918 Apr. - 1919 June  
WO 95/2898 5 Battalion Highland Light Infantry 1918 Apr. - 1919 May  

 

War diaries rarely mention men by name other than officers, but the location of the unit, and a brief description of its activities, is given on each day. The action at Moeuvres took place on about 17 September 1918, and it is worth looking at the brigade and divisional A&Q diaries as there may be something about the VC recommendation.

 

Good luck!

Ron

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Hello Ron. I went yesterday, it is bewildering. Given the amount of interest in WW1 it is surprising there isn't a dedicated facility. I heard the assistant explain the same procedure about a hundred times.

Anyway, medal cards and pension requests revealed my grandfather was in the ASC. As he was a baker and he was prefixed S/ most likely he was in a field bakery (he was nearly 40, married with two children).

Your suggestions came in handy. They did not yield much more, the last one HLI described the incident but not in the detail we already have.

If Terence Mulhill died on the 19th then it could be he made it back to British lines and by chance my grandfather's field bakery was in the same place. Maybe when he told my mother he was there when he died, be meant in a field hospital. Though how anyone would know their cousin from a different regiment was nearby is odd.

One version has Mulhill killed before he made it across No Man's Land, his "mate" dying of wounds later. Another version has them both making it, presumably Mulhill then dying on the 19th. 

As we know the other soldiers got the DCM (as well as VC for Hunter) it seems a shame Terence Mulhill got nothing, but I understand the policy was not to give posthumous awards other than VC and MiD.

I will certainly go to Moeuvres to pay my respects. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Longford James said:

I understand the policy was not to give posthumous awards other than VC and MiD.

Not just policy: it was stipulated in the various Warrants creating the other decorations that they could not be awarded posthumously - posthumous VCs were only allowed from about 1907.

 

It was, however, possible for a man to be awarded a posthumous decoration if the recommendation had already been submitted while he was still alive. There is an officer on one of the 1914 Memorials to the Missing who was awarded the Military Cross, even though he died before the MC was created, and the London Gazette entry clearly shows him as (deceased).

 

3 hours ago, Longford James said:

Anyway, medal cards and pension requests revealed my grandfather was in the ASC. As he was a baker and he was prefixed S/ most likely he was in a field bakery (he was nearly 40, married with two children).

 

I would certainly agree with that. Field bakeries and field butcheries were Lines of Communication units. Also, given the frequency of larger extended families in that era, it was not all that uncommon for brothers and cousins to run into each other "in the Field".

 

Ron

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Thanks again, Ron.

The VC award states the action was 16/17 September and Mulhill officially died on the 19th. 

Theoretically if the recommendation was made on the 18th he could be awarded the DCM posthumously?

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I didn't even know about this until last week but - whilst not resenting the awards to the other men - it seems so unfair that Mulhill, who made the ultimate sacrifice got nothing.

I just use W.J. Jones medal card purely as an example.

IMG_20190708_105653.jpg

IMG_20190708_110218.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

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