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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Anthony Eden and the First World War


Skipman

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Mike

Eden's autobiography stated - 'St Eloi, the scene of bitter fighting in the First and Second Battles of Ypres. The name was also familiar to me because a young Auckland Cousin, Bill Eden, much praised in my Eton days, had been killed there with my regiment.'

I'd presume Anthony Eden won the MC of the two - MCs were pretty rare in early 1915 having only recently been introduced.

Kind regards

Colin

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Anthony Eden did win an MC. It was a sore point with his successor as PM (Macmillan) that he (Macmillan) didn't win an MC.

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It was a sore point with his successor as PM (Macmillan) that he (Macmillan) didn't win an MC.

He should have spelt his name MCMillan

Did he win the MC with the KRRC?

Mike

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Anthony Eden was a very young officer of the Yeoman Rifles, 21/KRRC, and their adjutant aged only 19 after the battalion lost so many men at Flers on 15 September 1916. He doesn't say in his autobiography Another World that he won the MC, because he was too modest, or thought it would be bad form perhaps, but he describes in detail the trench raid (when they were in the line at Plugstreet before the Somme battles) and the rescue of a badly wounded sergeant which gave rise to it.

Liz

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I read a book about his WW1 service yrs ago but can't recall the title. I think he was in a "double digit" Bn number, 21st maybe? Not a very thick book but a good one. It was in my local library but long gone now sadly after some sort of weeding process that seemed to focus on military history. When I questioned that I was told not true but I still think it was as therer were several dozen books missing that I knew had been weeded out.


Liz beat me to it but glad to know I was right on the Bn & lthe book too!

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Thanks Liz. This will be his Medal Index Card Robert Anthony Eden.

Mike

Yes. This will be a great deal more than you want to know about his battalion. I've never actually done a mini-biography of Eden on that thread as I did for most of the other original officers, because he was a major source and constantly mentioned anyway, and also there's so much written about him. Robert Rhodes James' biography Anthony Eden suggests that the CO of the battalion after Feversham and Foljambe, Talbot Jarvis, managed to push their earlier recommendation for Eden's MC through.

Liz (still a 21/KRRC groupie though temporarily preoccupied with other things)

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Here's the man himself wearing the ribbon.

L-R Capt THG Grey MC 5/E Lancs, Capt R A Eden MC KRRC, Lt A T Terry RE, Temp Brig Gen A J Hunter DSO MC, Capt the REV E B Whitley RAChD, Capt P Ingleson MC 19/R Fus (2nd UPS), Capt G J Paul Gloucestershire Regt, M de Ponleroy French Interpreter. Second Lt H J McGrady R Innis Fus.

regards

John

post-27843-0-21190800-1416262097_thumb.j

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Here's the man himself wearing the ribbon.

L-R Capt THG Grey MC 5/E Lancs, Capt R A Eden MC KRRC, Lt A T Terry RE, Temp Brig Gen A J Hunter DSO MC, Capt the REV E B Whitley RAChD, Capt P Ingleson MC 19/R Fus (2nd UPS), Capt G J Paul Gloucestershire Regt, M de Ponleroy French Interpreter. Second Lt H J McGrady R Innis Fus.

regards

John

Thanks for posting that, John, I don't think I've seen it before, though there's one in the James book of him outside Buckingham Palace when he received his MC in 1917.

This one must have been taken in 1918? In early spring 1918 he became brigade major in the 198th Infantry Brigade, and he mentions his brigadier Alan Hunter at the end of Another World.

Liz

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So this is his BWM & VM roll which is his1914-15 Star roll?

Mike

Yes, except that he didn't go to France till May 1916 so he didn't have the 1914-15 star.

Btw I've only just looked at the Medal Rolls on Ancestry to which you linked and can see the problem before you realised his first name was Robert, with so many A Edens who aren't him. He signed himself RAE on the war diary when he was adjutant.

Liz

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I can't find it in my notes, Mike, but that's probably because I've always had problems searching the London Gazette - though I'll have another go as I might have improved slightly since I last tried.

Bw there have been quite a few threads on Eden such as this one. I was just checking in case someone had already put the citation up, but can't see it.

EDIT No, I still can't find a citation. The MC is in LG Supplement 30111 of 1 June 1917.

Liz

Edited by Liz in Eastbourne
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Mike

Eden, Robert Anthony

Temp 2nd Lt (Temp Lt)

King's Royal Rifle Corps, 21st Bn

Gazetted 4.6.17. Decorated 17.7.18.

The 4th June 1917 issue was an Honours Gazette so no citation.

(Source TNA Ref WO 389)

Glen

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