2ND BN SOUTH WALES BORDERERS KIA 15/10/1918 WW1 MEDALS & PLAQUE 48962 S G MOORE

2ND BN SOUTH WALES BORDERERS KIA 15/10/1918 WW1 MEDALS & PLAQUE 48962 S G MOORE

Offered is a British War and Victory Medal (1914 – 18), impressed named 48962 PTE. S.G. MOORE. S. WALES. BORD.; Memorial Plaque named SAMUEL GORDON MOORE. Comes with copies of M.I.C., medal roll, Commonwealth War Graves Certificate, soldiers’ effects extract, photograph of grave, war diary extract and research.

Samuel Gordon Moore was born in 1899 at Penarth, Glamorgan, Wales. Unfortunately, his service records did not survive the ‘Blitz’. He was killed in action fighting with ‘D’ Company, 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers on 15/10/1918 at Heule Wood, near Courtrai, Ypres.

The History of the South Wales Borderers records the action in which he was killed:

'At 9am the barrage started, and the battalion moved forward. It was on the left of the Division and had as its objective the village of Salines. As it reached the village, heavy machine gun fire developed from Heule Wood. ‘B’ and ‘D’ Company found themselves being fired on from the rear, ‘D’ Company promptly attacked the wood with ‘B’ Company in support. German machine gun posts were rushed and captured after very sharp fighting disposing of the defenders in a hand-to-hand struggle. The wood though strongly held was soon cleared'.

From the Barry Dock News dated 1/11/1918:

'Died in an exceptional noble way. The chaplain writes ‘His company were storming a wood which the enemy stubbornly held and Moore, at the forefront of the fight with no cover whatever, remained at his gun until it was red hot, firing round after round into the enemy forces. This example of soul bravery rallied the others at the most critical moment, and there is no doubt that had he been spared, he would have received high decoration, but at the summit of his success, when this brave boy had achieved an almost superhuman act, he was hit with a bullet and died instantly'.

As a result of the attack the battalion lost 1 officer killed, 2 wounded, 25 men killed, 130 wounded and 5 missing. Moore being one of the killed & is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave at Dadizeele, New British Cemetery.