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拍品專文
M.M. London Gazette 29.8.1918.
Bar to M.M. London Gazette 11.2.1919.
Sergeant Harry Lea, M.M., who was from Bordesley, first entered the French Theatre of War with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, in mid-September 1914, and would quickly have seen action at Steenwerck, Fromelles and La Cordonerie Farm in the following month. Interestingly, the Battalion War Diary records that the 2/R.W.F. were among those to witness the short-lived "truce" of Christmas 1914.
As one of the few "Old Sweats" of the 2/R.W.F. to survive the War - and win a brace of M.Ms - there can be little doubt that he was a known Battalion character who must have caught the attention of the likes of Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, and it is interesting to speculate whether he is the "Chopper" Lee referred to in Captain J.C. Dunn's much acclaimed The War The Infantry Knew 1914-1919 - the discrepancy in the spelling of his surname (Lea or Lee) is easily explainable by a double MIC entry for him in the P.R.O. If so, it was not just his gallantry that raised a few eyebrows - an Officer of the Middlesex Regiment and his Q.M.S. were both subjected to the sharp end of "Chopper's" tongue, the latter for being "One of those (assorted obscenities) who don't go into the line". There seems little doubt, however, that Dunn's mention of a Sergeant Lee of the 2/R.W.F. in an action fought south of Gouzeaucourt on 13.9.1918 is one and same man, and, moreover, a man likely to carry the sobriquet of "Chopper":
'The nearest post of the unit on our left had disappeared along the trench, leaving a long stretch empty, and our flank in the air. A section or so of the attackers got in there, but Sergeant Lee picked up a Lewis Gun, jumped out on top, and, getting a position for the gun, shot eight of them. Lee was a very stout-hearted little fellow; he was acting C.S.M. since the previous day's reshuffle consequent on casualties'.
Well worthy of further research.
Bar to M.M. London Gazette 11.2.1919.
Sergeant Harry Lea, M.M., who was from Bordesley, first entered the French Theatre of War with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, in mid-September 1914, and would quickly have seen action at Steenwerck, Fromelles and La Cordonerie Farm in the following month. Interestingly, the Battalion War Diary records that the 2/R.W.F. were among those to witness the short-lived "truce" of Christmas 1914.
As one of the few "Old Sweats" of the 2/R.W.F. to survive the War - and win a brace of M.Ms - there can be little doubt that he was a known Battalion character who must have caught the attention of the likes of Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, and it is interesting to speculate whether he is the "Chopper" Lee referred to in Captain J.C. Dunn's much acclaimed The War The Infantry Knew 1914-1919 - the discrepancy in the spelling of his surname (Lea or Lee) is easily explainable by a double MIC entry for him in the P.R.O. If so, it was not just his gallantry that raised a few eyebrows - an Officer of the Middlesex Regiment and his Q.M.S. were both subjected to the sharp end of "Chopper's" tongue, the latter for being "One of those (assorted obscenities) who don't go into the line". There seems little doubt, however, that Dunn's mention of a Sergeant Lee of the 2/R.W.F. in an action fought south of Gouzeaucourt on 13.9.1918 is one and same man, and, moreover, a man likely to carry the sobriquet of "Chopper":
'The nearest post of the unit on our left had disappeared along the trench, leaving a long stretch empty, and our flank in the air. A section or so of the attackers got in there, but Sergeant Lee picked up a Lewis Gun, jumped out on top, and, getting a position for the gun, shot eight of them. Lee was a very stout-hearted little fellow; he was acting C.S.M. since the previous day's reshuffle consequent on casualties'.
Well worthy of further research.