For Bravery

On the night of Monday 26th March 1917, the Ashington Coal Company hosted the first of four presentations to reward employees who had won great distinction in the First World War. On this occasion twenty-three men were honoured, for their bravery and their gallantry in their respective theatres of war, three of the men had been killed in the line of duty.
The presentation took the form of a silver cup, individually engraved with the recipient’s name and a few words of appreciation from the Ashington Coal Company. This ceremony was later repeated a further three times in February 1918, July 1919 and finally in February 1922, with 91 silver bowls, presented to the men or to their families. The men had gained the following distinctions: two men were awarded a Military Medal and Distinguished Conduct Medal; twelve men were recipients of the Distinguished Conduct Medal; one man received a Military Medal and bar; one man received a Serbian Gold medal, and seventy-five men were recipients of the Military Medal.
In September 2015 at the beginning of the ‘Weeping Window’ poppy exhibition we were approached by a lady who asked if we would be interested in a rose bowl for the collection. The family belief was that her grandfather was presented with this bowl for saving the life of the son of an official from the Ashington Coal Company during the First World War, but as he never spoke of it, they could not be certain.

On the night of 6th February 1918, 132670 Sapper James Smith of the 254/7 Tunnelling Corps, Royal Engineers, was presented with his silver bowl at the Harmonic Hall in Ashington. The newspaper report in the Morpeth Herald published two days later on the 8th gave this account of the reason behind his reward “Sapper James Smith, Tunnelling Coy., Strong’s Buildings, Choppington, M.M. For saving three men’s lives in a mine explosion in France”. The bowl was presented in appreciation of his bravery, in saving the men’s lives.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Derek Holcroft whose painstaking research found reference to these presentations taking place and to Deborah Moffat for supplying this article for our Northumberland At War Project.