GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
1298
A Second World War ‘London Blitz’ G.M. group of three awarded to Post Warden George Richard Titcombe, Air Raid
Precautions Service
GEORGE MEDAL, G.VI.R., 1st issue (George Richard Titcombe, M.M.); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (356468 Pnr., R.E.);
together with an erased Military Medal, G.V.R., first three good very fine (4) £1600-2000
G.M. London Gazette 14 February 1941. ‘George Richard Titcombe, M.M., A.R.P., Post Warden, Hampstead’. ‘When a number of H.E.
bombs fell in his Post area, Warden Titcombe showed great courage and coolness in controlling and co-ordinating all the incidents
and, by skilful direction of rescue operations carried out at considerable personal risk, he was the means of saving life. He was in the
open street under barrage and enemy bombardment for some hours near an unexploded bomb. When it was reported to him that a
nurse and child were under a demolished building, a block of flats, and that it might be possible to crawl inside, he, for the first time,
left his post and made an heroic effort to reach them. He rallied Wardens and let them into buildings, bringing out trapped persons.
Many of the houses seemed to be in danger of collapse but he did not hesitate for a moment and set a splendid example to all around
him’.
Although the recipient’s ‘Military Medal’ is mentioned in copied official papers, the M.M. is not confirmed. Also served in the Notts.
and Derby Regiment in the Great War. At the time of the Second World War he was living at 16 Ulysses Road, N.W.6 and was
employed as a Radio Engineer.
Sold with a quantity of copied official papers.
1299
A Second World War London Blitz G.M. pair awarded to Police Constable W. Griffiths, Metropolitan Police
GEORGE MEDAL, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Willis Griffiths); DEFENCE MEDAL 1939-45, the first with repaired suspension loop, good
very fine (2) £1800-2200
G.M. London Gazette 28 March 1941. The original recommendation states:
‘In the Enfield area of Middlesex, in the northern suburbs, a high explosive bomb practically demolished a house in Bush Hill Road,
Winchmore Hill, at 11.15 p.m. on 1 December 1940, fracturing gas and water mains and trapping a woman below the debris. P.C. W.
Griffiths, together with Inspector J. C. Pulham, climbed over the debris, broke down a door and removed many bricks which were
holding it fast. The Constable then cut through one of the rafters with a saw and was able to crawl below the floor, clearing a passage
through the pile of bricks and mortar. Owing to the confined space this had to be done by scraping it away by hand and passing it
back. The woman was found to be trapped behind a spring mattress, part of which was resting on her legs while another mattress was
obstructing the approach to her. The two officers were able to drag the second mattress away with a rope and a small coal shovel was
then used to remove sufficient debris to enable a doctor to reach the woman and give her an injection. A saw and some pliers were
then passed to the constable who sawed through the mattress frame and released her legs and broke the spring away from the frame,
allowing her to be released after the rescue action had taken two hours. On 16 November, the Inspector went to the rescue of a man
entombed in a demolished house in Park Way, Enfield, where he had managed to wriggle under some wreckage and lift it in such a
way that he took the weight of the casualty while other members of the party completed the rescue. On 13 November, he rescued an
elderly woman casualty who was trapped in her bedroom in a house in Bush Hill Park by climbing a partially destroyed staircase to the
third floor. Despite the fact that a fire had broken out in the house he carried her to safety.’
Willis Griffiths joined the Metropolitan Police in November 1926 and was posted to ‘Y’ Division, a unit whose area of operations
included parts of London, Hertfordshire and Middlesex. He was invested with his G.M. at Buckingham Palace on 21 December 1941.
The attack launched on London on 1 December 1940 was a subsidiary raid to a large strike on Southampton, the Luftwaffe having to
rely on ‘DR’ (Dead Reckoning) as cloud and mist obscured much of the city. Encountering medium flak of moderate accuracy, the 17
attacking aircraft dropped around 30 tons of H.E. bombs, most of the evening’s damage being sustained in the outer suburbs, of which
Enfield was one.
www.dnw.co.uk
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