Lot 7
Memorial Plaque awarded to Second Lieutenant Edward Maurice Winch, 6th attached 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade
Military Medals, Decorations and Orders On Land, at Sea, in the Air | E114
Auction: 7 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
A Tragic Memorial Plaque awarded to Second Lieutenant Edward Maurice Winch, 6th attached 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade, who Died of Wounds on the 25th of March 1915, comprising Memorial Plaque (Edward Maurice Winch) very fine (1).
2nd Lt Edward Maurice Winch, 6th Battalion Rifle Brigade, was wounded on the 6th of March 1915 at Armentieres and died in the Third General Hospital at Le Treport on the 25th of March, where he was buried on the following day. He was the elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Winch, of Cranehurst, Cranbrook, Kent. He was educated at Yardley Court Preparatory School, Tonbridge, and Aldenham School, and had completed one year at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he was prominent in athletics, winning one first prize and two seconds in the freshman’s sports.
He was gazetted to the Rifle Brigade in September 1914, and in January 1915 was sent from Sheerness in charge of 222 men to the Base, when he transferred to the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade. He had not been in the trenches much more than three weeks when he was hit by a hand grenade, and wounded so severely that he died a fortnight later. He was 20 years old.
Original Letter Dated 3rd of March 1915 – his last letter home:
“My Dear Jugs,
Very many thanks for your letter which I received one night in the trenches. We are out for a day or two now having a rest; we do a certain amount when we are out but one is able to get clean and a shave. I find it impossible to say anything interesting about the job out here. If you have read any paper, my remarks will be just the same as the worst issue of the Daily Mail. I am not allowed to tell you of the methods we adopt in carrying on the job or of the position of the trenches and so on. Until today it has been quite quiet. Our guns have done a hell of a lot of firing today – we cannot tell how much damage they have done. We expect a doing tomorrow. You must realise, of course, that even when I tell you we are at rest, we are always within artillery range from the guns, being only 1200 yards from our trenches. My own trench is about 200 yards from theirs at the most.
There was a bit of a [unreadable] on the other morning; the Germans thought they could dance about on their parapet; my fellows were rather amused how quick they moved. The following day the blighters got right onto my trench with their blessed rifle grenades, pranged it just nicely – quite difficult to know to drop one right in at 200 yards distance. They knocked a bit of my trench in but hit no-one; this was the signal for our guns to give them a knock. They hammered the trench just in front for the whole damned day.
Another rather interesting thing is to watch the blighters shelling our aeroplanes. I saw 50 shells bursting in the vicinity of two of our machines. They went on quite without any harm; they had evidently gained information of importance. They do damned good work.
Well, good luck to you and let me hear from you sometime my address is the same as always.
Yours Edward M. Winch.”
Edward was wounded two days later by a rifle grenade, dying two weeks afterwards at No. 3 General Hospital, Le Treport; he now lies in Plot 1, Row D, Grave 6 of Le Treport Military Cemetery, Seine-Maritime, France.
Sold with the Original Letter dated 3rd March 1915, Original Post Card original photograph of Edward in uniform and Original page from a Book of Remembrance with a photograph. Also Copy entry ‘De Ruvigny Roll of Honour’, Copy Photograph of Headstone, Copy Photograph of Cranbrook War Memorial, Copy Officer’s Effects Register entry, Commonwealth War Graves Commission details, Copy extract of ‘British Battalions on the Western Front January to June 1915’ by Ray Westlake, page 241, in which Edward is mentioned as being wounded on the 5th of March 1915, in the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade War Diary. Copy War Diary entries for February and March 1915.
Officers Papers (not included) are held at The National Archives, reference WO 339/19744.
See Lot 15 for his Cousins’ Medals, 2nd Lt W.H. Winch 1/5th The Buffs and Lot 50 for his brother Lt Col Cecil Winch MBE TD, Rifle Brigade attached RFC/RAF, and The Buffs (TA).
