WW1 Trio Etc to Coldstream Guards – Tunnelling Coy

A very interesting lot comprising of the 1915 star correctly named to 12678 Private Frederick Mansbridge Coldstream Guards, and the British war and victory medal correctly named to 12678 Corporal Frederick Mansbridge Coldstream Guards, silver war badge numbered 134699, this is confirmed by the SWB roll which is included. Also the King Edward VII Police coronation medal to PC Mansbridge ‘T’ Division, and lastly his original police armband.
There is so much to tell about this group especially about Frederick Mansbridge that I do not have the space to really do him justice but I will endeavour to detail as much as I can in brief.
Frederick Mansbridge was born in Hounslow in Middlesex around 1884, his Father and Mother ran a boarding house in Grove Road Hounslow letting rooms up six lodgers at one time.
In the 1911census we see Frederick employed as a Police Constable, policing T division which covered Hammersmith.
When the war broke out in 1914, Frederick now at the age of 30 with a wife and two children, was quick to volunteer and he was enlisted into the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards; on his enlistment, his occupation is described as a general labour, so he must have given up the police force only a few years earlier.
He landed on French soil in the early months of 1915, apart from the odd skirmish it seems their first major engagement was at Loos in the September, it was at this time Frederick was promoted to lance Corporal. In April of 1916 he was transferred to the royal engineers as minor but returned to the guards ten days later. A month on and a handful of men from the 3rd battalion Coldstream Guards and other regiments were attached to the 177 Tunnelling Company RE, Frederick was promoted to full corporal at this point; his service papers are a little hard for me to read, but for whatever he was posted it was a secret operation, it was to do with the digging of 19 huge British mines under the Messines Ridge. With the 177 tunnelling coy of the Royal Engineers they dug from 1500 feet from behind the British line to reach this strong point under the enemy trenches. 49500 pounds of explosive, mostly ammonal, buried 57 feet below the surface; it blew at 3.20am on 7 June 1917. The Messines craters can still be seen today resembling large ponds in the Flanders landscape.
It was only two days after this event that Frederick was badly wounded by shrapnel in the chest, a shell exploded next to him and he was hit by Shrapnel, he was admitted to hospital where they remove the shrapnel by operation, his service papers carry on describing his symptoms after his review in November 1917, it said “ he complains of frequent and acute pain in head, memory is affected, he is suffers from tremors and hand writing is shaky, sleep is broken and he suffers with bad dreams which wake him up”. It sounds as if this poor guy also had shell shock, the service papers do not mention shell shock, but that is not unusual, at this point in the war, shell shock was only just being recognised and the title was almost treated as a dirty word that shouldn’t be said. Frederick Mansbridge was discharged with wounds and found no longer fit to give military service, he was awarded a military pension, but who knows how this affected the rest of his life.
This group comes with copies of his service and pension papers, medal index card and SWB roll along with census details relating to Frederick and his family. The group would benefit from further research, he was specially picked for the tunnelling coy, so what was his role and what was the secret duty he was chosen for, the details are in his papers, it just needs deciphering.
All medals etc are in very good original condition, the silver war badge has lost its pin but otherwise in excellent order, all medals come on their original ribbons and mounted for display or safe storage.

Code: 17218