拍品專文
M.C. London Gazette 26.9.1916 'For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led the Reserve Company of his Battalion against the enemy's first line, directing and cheering them on till he fell wounded'.
Lieutenant Albert Walter Whitlock, M.C., was born in Bray, near Maidenhead and enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in August 1914, aged 26 years. Posted to the 10th Battalion, he gained rapid promotion to Lance-Sergeant and, having arrived in France in July 1915, received a Commission in the Field in April 1916, being posted to the 2nd Battalion. Whitlock subsequently participated in the 'First Day of the Somme', his Battalion suffering horrific casualties amounting to 561 men. Swept with enemy machine-gun fire after going 'Over the Top', a few men, Whitlock, among them, reached the enemy's first line at Beaumont Hamel, but they too were soon cut down. He was severely wounded in the face by shrapnel, in addition to being hit by a bullet in the left thigh - the metal of the shrapnel cut through his cheek and tongue, knocked out a tooth, broke another, and lodged in the base of his neck. He was invalided home, via Rouen, on the Hospital Ship St. David, and gazetted for an immediate M.C. that October.
Returning to the Western Front with the 7th Battalion on recovering from his wounds, Whitlock was once more seriously wounded at Thilloy, near Baupaume, on 27.8.1918, and taken prisoner:
'We took the village on the second attack and on emerging from the other side found the enemy on their way to counter-attack. We were driven back and my Orderly - a Private in the Artist's Rifles - and myself were both wounded in the leg and the former also in the head, and left on the ground. We endeavoured to get away by crawling but were overtaken and passed by the enemy and made prisoners' (P.R.O. WO 339/59714 refers).
Repatriated from Germany in late December 1918, the serious nature of his wound became quickly apparent to a Medical Board, an important nerve having been divided by the gunshot to his left thigh - partial paralysis of the left leg was 'likely to be permanent'. Alas, the Army Pensions Board appear to have taken a different view, or certainly judging by Whitlock's scathing letter to them of 13.6.1919:
' ... I wish to protest against my arbitrary discharge with a possible pension, which, even if I am granted the maximum, is totally inadequate, in as much as I have to attend hospital every day for one and a half hours treatment for a paralized leg for at least another 12 months and possibly two years ...' (P.R.O. WO 339/59714 refers).
Lieutenant Albert Walter Whitlock, M.C., was born in Bray, near Maidenhead and enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in August 1914, aged 26 years. Posted to the 10th Battalion, he gained rapid promotion to Lance-Sergeant and, having arrived in France in July 1915, received a Commission in the Field in April 1916, being posted to the 2nd Battalion. Whitlock subsequently participated in the 'First Day of the Somme', his Battalion suffering horrific casualties amounting to 561 men. Swept with enemy machine-gun fire after going 'Over the Top', a few men, Whitlock, among them, reached the enemy's first line at Beaumont Hamel, but they too were soon cut down. He was severely wounded in the face by shrapnel, in addition to being hit by a bullet in the left thigh - the metal of the shrapnel cut through his cheek and tongue, knocked out a tooth, broke another, and lodged in the base of his neck. He was invalided home, via Rouen, on the Hospital Ship St. David, and gazetted for an immediate M.C. that October.
Returning to the Western Front with the 7th Battalion on recovering from his wounds, Whitlock was once more seriously wounded at Thilloy, near Baupaume, on 27.8.1918, and taken prisoner:
'We took the village on the second attack and on emerging from the other side found the enemy on their way to counter-attack. We were driven back and my Orderly - a Private in the Artist's Rifles - and myself were both wounded in the leg and the former also in the head, and left on the ground. We endeavoured to get away by crawling but were overtaken and passed by the enemy and made prisoners' (P.R.O. WO 339/59714 refers).
Repatriated from Germany in late December 1918, the serious nature of his wound became quickly apparent to a Medical Board, an important nerve having been divided by the gunshot to his left thigh - partial paralysis of the left leg was 'likely to be permanent'. Alas, the Army Pensions Board appear to have taken a different view, or certainly judging by Whitlock's scathing letter to them of 13.6.1919:
' ... I wish to protest against my arbitrary discharge with a possible pension, which, even if I am granted the maximum, is totally inadequate, in as much as I have to attend hospital every day for one and a half hours treatment for a paralized leg for at least another 12 months and possibly two years ...' (P.R.O. WO 339/59714 refers).