Great War groups to two brothers. Battle of the Somme, 1 Jul...

Hammer

£2,200

Great War groups to two brothers. Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, group of three, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal with 'mention' emblem, 2 Lieut E C Hetherington E Surr R and Defence Medal attributed to the same, addressed Windsor and the medals of his brother, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, Defence Medal, War Medal, Silver Jubilee Medal 1935, Coronation Medal 1953, Efficiency Decoration (GRI), Territorial suspender and three bars and Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, 1245 L Cpl H G Hetherington P.P.C.L.I [on Star, Capt H G Hetherington on British War Medal and Victory Medal, Col H G Hetherington RA on Defence Medal, War Medal and Jubilee Medal, 1939 on rev. of Efficiency Decoration and Harold G Hetherington on Special Constabulary Long Service Medal], mounted court style, Spink & Son Ltd fitted leather case, a corresponding set of miniature medals, boxed, Royal Victorian Order, fourth class (LVO) breast badge, numbered on reverse 1445, fitted case of Collingwood of Conduit Street Ltd, Silver Jubilee Medal 1977, boxed, pair of field glasses, in black leather case inscribed H[oward].W[alklett].H[etherington] SOUTH NOTTS HUSSARS, two prismatic compasses in leather cases, miscellaneous Notts & Derby Regiment Sherwood Foresters cap badges, shoulder titles, tunic buttons and cloth insignia, a photograph and other miscellaneous articles

The awards of 1846474 Lieutenant Ernest Cooper Hetherington (1888-1979) of 8th Battalion East Surrey Regiment and Hon. Colonel Harold George Hetherington TD DL (1897-1977)

The East Surrey Regiment famously performed a 'football' charge on the first day of the Somme offensive, an event which was to pass into collective memory or folklore. It originated with Capt W P Nevill, a fellow officer of E C Hetherington, who purchased two footballs when on home leave, taking them with him to the front line. He directed his men to kick the balls across no-man's-land and the advance to German trenches commenced. Witnessed by E C Hetherington and a colleague, Joe Ackerley, they recalled "Nevill... who had a football for his men to dribble over to the ‘flattened and deserted’ German lines and was then going to finish off any ‘gibbering imbecile’ he might meet with the shock of his famous grin (he had loose dentures and could make a skull like grimace when he smiled) was also instantly killed." Hetherington himself described: "After being wounded, I remember lying out in a shell-hole in no-man's land for some time and then stumbling back to our front line trench. Nevill was lying there dead, having presumably been shot as he climbed over the parapet at zero hour - I doubt whether he ever got a kick at one of those footballs. Our battalion MO, Gimson, was in the trench attending to the wounded he asked me to take Nevill’s ring back to his family in England. I did." (E C Hetherington, Hetherington's private papers deposited at Surrey History Centre, ref ESR/18/31-2)
https://tinyurl.com/CLoKMKHetherington