WW1-2 Medal Trio etc to Chipperfield MGC.
A WW1 British war and victory medal correctly named to 103897 Sidney Chipperfield Machine Gun Corps; mounted with a WW2 defence medal unnamed as issued. Also included in a Women’s Voluntary Service medal with news paper clipping.
Sidney Chipperfield was born in Kessingland Suffolk on 19th November 1889. He was the eldest son of Robert and Ellen, Robert a successful commercial butcher, the company all his family were to be employed in. Sidney eventually to take on the family business for himself in the High Street Kessingland. It is hard to know weather Sidney volunteered or was drafted into the army, but he served with the 53rd brigade Machine Gun Corps. The 53rd M.G. Coy. disembarked at le Havre on 09 February 1916 and joined the 53rd Brigade on 13 February 1916 at Ribemont. It may have absorbed machine gunners from the Machine Gun Sections of the 18th (Eastern) Division, 8th Bn. Norfolk Regiment, 8th Bn. Suffolk Regiment, 10th Bn. Essex Regiment and 6th Bn. Royal Berkshire Regiment. They saw action at the battles of the Somme 1916, including the Capture of Trones Wood and the battle of Delville Wood. The Operations on the Ancre 1917 and the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line. The battles of Ypres, Pilckem Ridge, Passchendaele and Capture of Poelcappelle. On 16 February 1918, it was amalgamated with the 54th and 55th Machine Gun Companies to form No. 18 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, here they saw action once again on the Somme at St. Quentin, Albert, the Second Battle of Bapaume and the Final Advance in Picardy.
On the 6th November 1918, the advanced troops of the 18th Division made good the line of the railway (along the south-eastern side of the Forest of Mormal) near Sassegnies, and pushed out patrols to the left bank of the River Sambre. The 18th Division was then drawn back into XIII Corps Reserve; and when the Armistice brought hostilities to a close, the Division was billeted in villages around Le Cateau. Here the Division remained until the end of the year; all ranks were given educational and recreational training and were employed on salvage work. During the war, the18th Division lost 46,503 killed, wounded, and missing. Sidney was lucky he survived and returned to his butcher’s shop in Kessingland. He married Edith around 1919 and had a least one daughter Joyce. During the 2nd world war Sidney became a member of the ARP, Edith Joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and on the 1939 register, says Joyce (now married with the name of Sandford) joined the W A C, but I’m sure it means the WVS, The Women's Voluntary Service. Sadley Sidney Chipperfield died on 25th November 1961. It looks like he was he was attending the football match between Norwich City and Derby County at Carrow Road football ground in Norwich on that day and died at the ground at the age of 72. He now rests with his beloved wife Edith at St Edmond Church cemetery, Kessingland.
All medals are in excellent condition and they comes with various copied research including Medal index card, medal roll, census and probate details.
Code: 29788