Description

WW1 KILLED IN ACTION 1917 MEDALS 23059 JOHN SPENCER ROYAL SCOTS TWICE WOUNDED

Offered is a WW1 trio of medals to Private John Spencer, Royal Scots, who was twice wounded, and was later killed in action on the Western Front on 7 June 1917

1914 – 15 Star, impressed named 23059 P^TE  J.SPENCER. R.SCOTS. British War and Victory Medals, impressed named 23059 PTE. J. SPENCER. R. SCOTS. Swing mounted for display and comes with copies of service papers, M.I.C., medal rolls, pension card extracts, soldiers’ effects extract, Commonwealth War Graves extract, War diary extracts and newspaper articles.

John Spencer was born in 1892 at Southport, Lancashire. He was working as a bricklayer’s laborer when he enlisted into The Royal Scots at Bolton on the 2/6/1915. He arrived at Glencorse Barracks 3/6/15 and was posted to the 3^rd Battalion 8/6/1915. He was posted as part of the 5th reinforcements 12^th Battalion R.S on the 2/10/1915 on the same day that he landed in France.

He joined the Battalion in the Ypres section 4/10/15, the draft consisted of 2 Officers and 146 rank and file. His 1^st time in the trenches was on the 6^th October. The war diary records a steady drain of casualties over the month and on the 30^th Oct, 2 men killed and 4 wounded including Spencer.

He was casualty evacuated on 30/10/15 with shell shock rejoining the Battalion 26/12/1915.

The Battalion was in the trenches near Piggeries, on the 10/5/1916. He was the only casualty for the day received a gunshot wound to his back. His records state wounded in action 10/5/1916, however the war diary records 1 man wounded on the 9^th and nil for the 10^th so it is probable that he was wounded on the night of the 9/10^th.  His records state GSW back slight whilst another states GSW chest with fracture of rib. 14/7/16 ‘Operated on for removal of shrapnel which was not (recovered?) by fracture of rib which has not been suspected was discovered’.

He was processed through the system and sent home 21/7/1916 – 15/1/1917, he returned to France 17/1/1917 and joined the 17^th Battalion RS in the field 20/1/1917.  25/4/1917 posted to the 11^th Battalion R.S (27^th Brigade, 9^th Division) and was killed in action 7/6/1917 near Arras.

The 11^th Battalion had just completed a successful attack and defended the gains from several German counter attacks. Over the course of the 5- 7^th June, the battalion lost 11 Officers and 130 other ranks.

He has no known grave and is commemorated at the Arras Memorial.