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Lot Essay
Approximately 80 Dated Bars were awarded in the Great War, five of these going to members of the Royal Artillery.
D.C.M. London Gazette 22.1.1916 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty near Ypres on 29 December 1915, when, under heavy fire of high explosive and gas shells, he left his dug-out and went about 200 yards through a dense cloud of gas to a farm where another Battery was billeted, and rendered first aid to several wounded men. While he was doing this a bursting shell blew him across the room in which he was working, but he coolly picked himself up and returned to his work'.
Bar to D.C.M. London Gazette 30.3.1916 'For conspicuous gallantry. He went out with his Officer under heavy shell fire and assisted in rescuing the Drivers of a wagon which had been hit by a shell, Drivers and horses being wounded. He and his Officer were then wounded by a shell, the latter very severely. Gunner Vercoe, wounded as he was, carried him back under heavy fire and refused to have his own wounds attended to till he had assisted to dress those of his Officer'.
Corporal Francis Vercoe, D.C.M., a Hemel Hempstead man, was killed in action with 145 Siege Battery, R.G.A. in Belgium on 4.6.1917 and is buried at Underhill Farm Cemetery, Ploegsteert. He was 28 years of age. The Officer referred to in his D.C.M. and Bar citation was Temporary Lieutenant R. McD. Murray, M.C., who sadly succumbed to his wounds on 25.2.1916.
D.C.M. London Gazette 22.1.1916 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty near Ypres on 29 December 1915, when, under heavy fire of high explosive and gas shells, he left his dug-out and went about 200 yards through a dense cloud of gas to a farm where another Battery was billeted, and rendered first aid to several wounded men. While he was doing this a bursting shell blew him across the room in which he was working, but he coolly picked himself up and returned to his work'.
Bar to D.C.M. London Gazette 30.3.1916 'For conspicuous gallantry. He went out with his Officer under heavy shell fire and assisted in rescuing the Drivers of a wagon which had been hit by a shell, Drivers and horses being wounded. He and his Officer were then wounded by a shell, the latter very severely. Gunner Vercoe, wounded as he was, carried him back under heavy fire and refused to have his own wounds attended to till he had assisted to dress those of his Officer'.
Corporal Francis Vercoe, D.C.M., a Hemel Hempstead man, was killed in action with 145 Siege Battery, R.G.A. in Belgium on 4.6.1917 and is buried at Underhill Farm Cemetery, Ploegsteert. He was 28 years of age. The Officer referred to in his D.C.M. and Bar citation was Temporary Lieutenant R. McD. Murray, M.C., who sadly succumbed to his wounds on 25.2.1916.