I am grateful to Gavin Purdon, who has sent me the following research about his Signaller Grandfather who won the Military Medal in the 2nd Kings Own Scottish Borderers for Gallantry at Polderhoek on Oct the 4th/5th 1917.  He writes:

 

 

My grandfather never talked about the war to my Dad or Aunts and family knowledge about the award was sketchy apart from the MM being won at Ypres. He never mentioned it to his wife  even at the time and the first thing she knew about it was when a  reporter came to the door from the local newspaper. I believe few MM citations exist but by great good luck the battalion order recommending my Grandad's MM survives in his regiment's archives. His Colonel credits him and his pal David Greig  with their one signal lamp as the sole and vital  saving link to their brigade.  All other signals equipment and personnel were out of action.The ground behind them was so exposed and boxed in by German shellfire that runners had no chance of survival. The Germans had been planning a major attack the same morning  as the KOSBs and had a massive reserve of shells and men on hand . 2 KOSB were now on the receiving end of them . The colonel needed his defensive artillery barrage relocating to their immediate front as he suspected a large German force had got between the KOSB's and the pre arranged barrage, which they had done. The battalion was too weak to defend itself at this point. In their 2 days on the Polderhoek Spur  the 2nd KOSBs lost 450 0f their 540 men.  The 90 left standing owed a lot to two good signallers.

 

“ FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND DEVOTION  ”   A TALE OF TWO SIGNALLERS    Robert Murray Purdon MM.   When my Grandmother died in the 1960’s I was left a medal she had belonging to my  late Grandfather Robert Murray Purdon. It was won in the First World War for “ Bravery in the Field ” but for what act of bravery on which field no one in the family  knew.   Although my Grandfather rarely spoke about his war service , between them ,my Father and my Aunts did have some of his particulars.   He had been  a King’s Own Scottish Borderer . He fought at Mons ,Hill 60 and in Italy. He was wounded in the neck and gassed. He was what was called a Battalion Linesman who fixed  telephone cables broken by shell fire. It was dangerous work and the medal might have had something to do with that. He never took his stripes. He told them that the motto of his battalion was    “No Porridge No Fighting ”.   He was a small quiet man, steady and likeable , fond of his baccy and a dram  . He read the Bible and the poems of Robbie Burns. He also had a pair of buxom ladies tattooed on his forearms and annoyed my Grandmother by saying they were his French girlfriends.   The medal was something of a mystery. At the time he never mentioned it to his wife. A newspaper reporter came to her door wanting to write a story, “ Giffnock Man Wins Military Medal ”. She said he must be mistaken. There were other Purdon women in the village with  their men in France and it must have been one of them. Later my Grandfather declined to attend the award ceremony and had the M.M. sent to him by post.   I tried very hard to find out more about that medal. The Kings Own Scottish Borderers and the Army Medals Record Office were quite ready to help but could only offer very basic details and the bad news that often Great War Military Medals did not have a detailed citation to go with them.   That was it for 30 something years  until a conversation with a cousin in New Zealand led to the missing information . Yes, citations were few and far between, but there were often detailed initial recommendations in regimental records suggesting why a medal should be awarded. It turned out that the King’s Own Scottish Borderers still had my Grandfather’s recommendation.   “ RECOMMENDATION FOR MILITARY MEDAL PTE. ROBERT PURDON & PTE. DAVID GRIEVE   At POLDERHOEK on Oct 4/5th 1917 these men displayed conspicuous gallantry and devotion whilst acting as signallers. Under exceptionally heavy shellfire they continued to work a Lamp Signalling Station which was the only means of  communication with Brigade H.Q. except pigeons.   At one time the lamp was broken by shellfire, but they still remained at duty. These men were also mainly responsible for all communications during the battle as the N.C.O. in charge had become a casualty.   Recommended by Lt. Col C.T. Furber . Commdg. Both Awarded 2 Military Medal by Xth Corps Commdr. C.R.O. 283/1813 d/d 25/10/1 ”           WAR DIARY OF LT. COL. FURBER , FOR 2 K.O.S.B.’s , 5TH OCT 1917. “All communication was carried out by runners and pigeons. I had one lamp in touch with Adv. Brigade H.Q. but  communication was difficult owing to continual shell fire and smoke caused by same.”   A Description of Polderhoek by Captain  Stair Gillon , the Regimental Historian takes up a full  chapter in “THE K.O.S.B. AT WAR” published in 1930. He also sums Polderhoek up in a single sentence   “- cold, wet,  intense shelling,  pill box  receptions, fatigue, discomfort, sleeplessness, and stenches in the midst of a featureless and apparently endless morass.”   Polderhoek  was part of the infamous Battle of Passchendale the horrors of which are a matter of record. Probably they go some way to explaining my Grandfather’s silence on the circumstance of his award. 2 days at Polderhoek earned my Grandfather’s battalion  I D.S.O. , 1 Mentioned in Dispatches, 1 bar to the M.C., 4 M.C.’s, 5 D.C.M.’s and 17 M.M.’s. The cost  to my Grandfather’s battalion  was an 80% casualty  rate of 11 officers and 438 men , half of those were lost in the first half hour, the rest over two days of intense German artillery bombardment. The 90 men who made it back from Polderhoek owed much to Privates Purdon and Grieve   manning their signal station and handling the Pigeons.  Repeated German infantry assaults on the weakened K.O.S.B.’s were held at bay by their calls for an S.O.S. Barrage being answered by the guns of the Royal Artillery.   In 1929, 11 years after Polderhoek, Colonel Furber, who recommended the Military Medal  for my Grandfather and David Grieve, was by then a Major in the Tank Corps. He added a very personal footnote to the record of that battle which makes a fitting  testimony and epitaph.  “ IT WAS HORRIBLE ALL THROUGH….THE WHOLE THING WAS A NIGHTMARE . THE MEN WERE SIMPLY MAGNIFICENT;   HOW THEY STUCK SOME OF THE SITUATIONS BEATS ME.”  R.T. Furber D.S.O.

Other Great War Links To 50th Division Signal Coy R.E. Great War Trench Maps To Great War Tanks   Guy Smith     e mail:    guy@trenchmap.com