Description

Victory Medal (1914-1919, impressed named L 6-2677 H. BLYFIELD. A.B. R.N.V.R. Medal comes with copies of service records, medal roll and 1911 census.

Harold Frederick Blyfield was born on 5/3/1894 at Greenwich, Kent. An electrical instrument maker he enlisted into the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve on 16/5/1915 with the service No 6/2677.

He was mobilised for the war and posted to the 4th (Collingwood) Battalion on 22/8/1914. As part of the 1st Naval Brigade, 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, he landed in Holland on 6/10/1914 and was in action during the defence of Antwerp.

They were ordered to withdraw on the 7th and suffered badly from confused orders and the chaotic condition of the roads.  Eventually, they made their way to St Gilles Waes, where a train had been sent to evacuate them. Unfortunately, the Germans were attacking now at Moerbeke, just down the line.  The men were in no condition to fight: they were ordered to march across the Dutch frontier three miles to the north, where some 1,500 of them were disarmed and interned. Blyfield being one of them being interned on 8/10/1914.

Bizarrely he was twice granted home leave in 1916 and 1918 and returned to the internment camp each time. He was demobilised at the end of the war on 5/2/1919. He died in March 1977 at Cuckfield, Sussex.