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L/Cpl. George Neale MM & Bar
British Army 22nd Btn. (Trench Mortars) Northumberland Fusiliers
from:Blyth
(d.30th Aug 1916)
I was researching our Family Trees and attended a course at our local library. The tutor on the course was researching his ancestor in The Tyneside Irish and he was very interested when I told him about the MM and Bar of my husband's grandfather, George Neale. He arranged for my husband and I to accompany him to the Archives in Alnwick Castle. I did not find out much more than I had already researched.
However during the course I told the tutor that I remembered my uncle William Emmerson Metcalfe had several medals which I had seen when I was a child. I thought he was in the Durham Light Infantry, but after much searching on the internet I found he too had served with the Northumberland Fusliers and he too had been awarded the MM. He did survive the war and lived into his 70s. Other than his Medal card I could not find anything more as he and his family are all deceased now .
I thought that was the end of it until someone on one of my genealogy sites informed me that uncle Emmerson's medals were for sale at a Medal Dealers shop in Hexham. I was able to buy back the medals - I don't know how they came to be for sale - and now, along with George Neale's MM and Bar, we will pass them down through the family. Sadly, however, when George's widow died his other medals and many mementos were split among the family and are now in Canada with the family of George's only daughter.
This is not the end. On reading on your website today I think I am right in assuming that both George Neale and William Emmerson Metcalfe were involved in the same assault on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the day that George was awarded his MM. Emmerson Metcalfe had to wait until 2 Nov 1918 for his MM and he survived but George was killed on 30 Aug 1916 .
