WW1 medal group – 1914-15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal - awarded to Private ARTHUR SINGLETON of the Royal Lancaster Regiment – Wounded Second Battle of Ypres

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0021

WW1 medal group – 1914-15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal - awarded to Private ARTHUR SINGLETON of the Royal Lancaster Regiment – Wounded Second Battle of Ypres

You are looking at a trio of WW1 medals, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal awarded to Private ARTHUR SINGLETON of the Royal Lancaster Regiment.

The medals are inscribed:

1914-15 Star - ‘240821 PTE A.SINGLETON. R.LANC.R.’

BWM & VM – ‘2704 PTE A.SINGLETON. R.LANC.R.’

ARTHUR was a member of the 1/5^th Battalion the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), and he arrived in France on the 14^th of February 1915.

On the 7^th of May 1915, he was serving with D Coy of the 5^th Battalion, when he was admitted to No 2 General Hospital having suffered a gunshot wound to his arm and leg. As to whether the 7^th was the day he actually sustained the injury is unclear, but we know he was aboard the Hospital Ship ‘Oxfordshire’, and he was under treatment for a period of two days.  He also appeared in the War Office Casualty List as having been wounded and was therefore entitled to wear a ‘Wound Stripe’.

Listed alongside ARTHUR within the WW1 Hospital Registers is Private 1688 WILLIAM REDMAN and Private 1426 LEONARD SHEPHERD, they were all members of the 1/5^th Battalion, and they are all listed together within the record, one after the other, and this would suggest they were wounded at the same time and probably in the same event.  

Within the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, 3 x members of the 1/5^th Battalion were killed in action on the 6^th of May 1915, 2 x on the 7^th of May, and 13 x on the 8^th of May, the later casualties including CSM HENRY IRVING of D Coy, the same company as ARTHUR SINGLETON.

The battalion were involved in the ‘Second Battle of Ypres’ (22^nd April to 25^th May 1915), and the war diary provides that the battalion were at Frezendberg in Belgium on the 5^th of May, moving to huts for rest and reorganisation on the 6^th, leaving huts on the 7^th and making towards dugouts near to Brigade HQ close to St Jean, then moving to General HQ lines on the 8^th, where they were ordered to retake trenches that had been lost previously.

The 5^th and 2^nd Battalions, and other regiments, were involved in the ‘Battle of Frezenberg’ (May 8^th – 13^th May 1915), or ‘Frazenberg Ridge’, a high elevated position that was strategically important to troops from both sides, and they suffered very heavy losses during this offensive.  

ARTHUR returned to his regiment it appears because he continued his military service and was disembodied on the 14^th of December 1918.

According to the hospital register, ARTHUR was 19 years old when he was wounded and taken into hospital, so he was born c1895/96, but SINGLETON is not an uncommon surname, and there is no further information available to assist us in establishing who exactly he was and where he was from, although it is assumed he was from the Lancashire area.

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during my research into this medal will be provided.