Found in a treasure chest: The medal that Siegfried Sassoon 'threw into the Mersey in anti-war protest'

Sassoon's Military Cross is expected to fetch up to £25,000 at Christie's auction next month
12 April 2012

The long-lost gallantry award of Siegfried Sassoon - the soldier-poet whose First World War heroics stirred the emotions and consciences of a nation - has been found in an attic.

The Military Cross he was thought to have thrown away in protest at the senseless butchery on the Western Front has turned up in a "treasure chest" on the Isle of Mull, on the West Coast of Scotland.

For years, even his family believed that the officer nicknamed "Mad Jack" for his displays of manic courage had hurled his Military Cross into the Mersey in 1917.

In fact, it was only the MC ribbon that Sassoon had sent floating away on the river "in a paroxysm of exasperation" at the authorities' refusal to court-martial him after he went AWOL and declined to carry out any further military duties.

The actual medal, together with Sassoon's identification tag, is expected to fetch up to £25,000 at Christie's in London on June 6.

His Webley revolver, also found in the attic, has been given to the Imperial War Museum.

Robert Pulvertaft, 45, whose step-father George was Sassoon's only son, is selling the medal on behalf of the family.

He said yesterday: "I had no idea it even existed. Like most people, I thought it had been thrown into the Mersey.

"I found it while clearing out the attic of the family property on Mull. Bizarrely, it was in a treasure chest, like a pirates' chest, covered in cobwebs and long-dead insects.

"The ID tag was there too, along with the revolver in an old Jiffy bag and some poetry medals."

Sassoon - best remembered for "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" - was serving in France as a second-lieutenant with the Royal Welch Fusiliers when he won the MC for his actions on May 26, 1916.

During a raid on enemy trenches, he remained for 90 minutes under heavy fire collecting and bringing back British wounded and dying.

In another typically wild and heroic exploit, he was so upset at witnessing a friend shot dead through the forehead in front of him that he single-handedly charged and captured a substantial German trench, only to flop down into it and begin reading from a poetry book he pulled from his pocket.

He was also recommended for the Victoria Cross but was eventually awarded a bar to his MC.

Two further recommendations for a bar to the MC -originally a gallantry medal for officers of the rank of captain or below - were refused on the grounds that the overall operations were unsuccessful.

It was on convalescent leave, for a "blighty wound", in 1917 that Sassoon had time to reflect on the horrors of war and became a pacifist of courage, not cowardice.

He recalls throwing away his MC ribbon in "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer", published in 1930.

While walking along the dunes at Formby he shook his clenched fists at the sky, adding: "Feeling no better for that, I ripped the MC ribbon off my tunic and threw it into the mouth of the Mersey.

"Weighted with significance though this action was, it would have felt more conclusive had the ribbons been heavier.

"As it was, the poor little thing fell weakly on the water and floated away as though aware of its own futility."

Reacting violently, also, to the sentimentally patriotic notions of the glamour of war, he declined to return to duty, sending to his commanding officer a copy of "A Soldier's Declaration".

It catalogues "political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed" and condemning "the callous complacency" of the public.

The Army, unwilling to bring a national hero before a court marital, preferred to believe he was suffering from shell shock and sent him for treatment at Craiglockhart Hospital, near Edinburgh.

Sassoon, whose friends included Robert Graves (with whom he served), Thomas Hardy, H G Wells and T E Lawrence (of Arabia), is also remembered for his collections of poems, including The Old Huntsman, Counter-Attack and Satirical Poems, and books including The Old Century, The Weald of Youth, Sherston's Progress and Siegfried's Journey.

From the Sassoon library, the family is also selling the annotated press cuttings book of T E Lawrence, expected to fetch up to £15, 000, and Siegfried Sassoon's first edition copy of Robert Graves's Goodbye to all That, embellished throughout by Sassoon with sardonic comments (£12, 000).

Sassoon, who had no German ancestry and whose uncommon first name was because of his mother's predilection for the operas of Wagner, was awarded the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 1957 and died at Heytesbury House, Warminster, Wiltshire, in 1967, aged 80.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in