Lot Essay
M.M. London Gazette 16.11.1916.
2nd Lieutenant Ernest Arthur Heaton, M.M., was almost certainly decorated for the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards' attack on Lesboeufs on the Somme on 15.9.1916, the War Diary describing fighting of the 'severest kind', many of the men being engaged in hand-to-hand combat and 'all ranks performing in a gallant and heroic manner'. Another Lance-Sergeant of the Battalion, Fred McNess, was awarded the V.C.
Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Marines in April 1918, Heaton joined the R.M. Field Force in North Russia and was appointed Second-in-Command, with the Local Rank of Captain, of a 150-strong Detachment at Kem. Briefed with the unenvious task of investigating the activities of bands of Finnish White Guards and to restore order, the Detachment was reinforced by local recruitment of Karelians. 'A fine body of men', the Karelians did good work, accompanying Colonel Woods' mission to the Finnish Frontier, where following the 'sharpest fighting' of the Campaign, the White Finns were defeated. Heaton appears to have come through unscathed, although his C.O., Captain Drake-Brockman, was killed in action in May 1919.
2nd Lieutenant Ernest Arthur Heaton, M.M., was almost certainly decorated for the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards' attack on Lesboeufs on the Somme on 15.9.1916, the War Diary describing fighting of the 'severest kind', many of the men being engaged in hand-to-hand combat and 'all ranks performing in a gallant and heroic manner'. Another Lance-Sergeant of the Battalion, Fred McNess, was awarded the V.C.
Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Marines in April 1918, Heaton joined the R.M. Field Force in North Russia and was appointed Second-in-Command, with the Local Rank of Captain, of a 150-strong Detachment at Kem. Briefed with the unenvious task of investigating the activities of bands of Finnish White Guards and to restore order, the Detachment was reinforced by local recruitment of Karelians. 'A fine body of men', the Karelians did good work, accompanying Colonel Woods' mission to the Finnish Frontier, where following the 'sharpest fighting' of the Campaign, the White Finns were defeated. Heaton appears to have come through unscathed, although his C.O., Captain Drake-Brockman, was killed in action in May 1919.