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CQSM. Gawin Wild MM.
British Army 26th Btn. Northumberland Fusillers
from:Littletown, Durham,
Gawin Wild was born on the 17th of November 1891 .He enlisted with the Northumberland Fusiliers on the 11th December, 1914 as C.Q.S.M, Regimental No. 26/1310, who were part of the 3rd Tyneside Irish. He was award of the Military Medal for bravery in the field during the Battle of the Somme and for his exploits early on the morning of 1st of July 1916 when he rescued a superior officer. He was wounded in action in July 1916 and taken back to England to Stourbridge Military Hospital for treatment.
Whilst convalescing, C.Q.S.M Gawin Wild wrote a letter to Mary Elizabeth Hunter, the wife of his dear friend Jackie Hunter from his hospital bed telling her of her husband Jackie's death: "We got to the second line and the Germans gave us lots of machine gun fire and when I was within about 20 yards of a German machine gun. A bullet went through my hip and another through my arm. Jackie dragged me about ten yards to a shell-hole and just as he pushed me into the safety of the hole, he was shot through the head. A shell, bursting overhead lodged a piece of shrapnel in me, but I managed to crawl into a shell- hole. I was there for about sixteen hours and all while a lovely sun was burning down. Poor Jackie and I lay all that long burning day together in that shell-hole. You can imagine my feelings, lying there with one of my best chums was lying there dead an I was unable to do anything".
On his return to duty he was transferred to the Labour Corps as an A/C/Sgt., Regt. No. 476930.
The men of the Labour Corps overseas undertook any labouring task required of them. They built and repaired roads and railways, built defences, laid electricity and telephones cables, moved ammunition and stores and buried the dead. Some Companies were used in Forestry or Quarrying Work or to guard Prisoners of War. Other Companies looked after services in the towns and camps where the front line soldiers went for rest when not at the Front. These Companies were employed in the Divisional Baths, Laundry, de-lousing facility and at the Salvage Dump. They also provided men for guard duties, traffic control and catering duties as well as the Divisional Cinema and Theatre. In France & Belgium the men of the Labour Corps worked unarmed within the range of German guns. A Company would often work for weeks or even months at a time in the most dangerous conditions with only one days rest in every seven.
After the war he married Mathilde Georgette Rambout in 1919. On the 18 February 1925 he was appointed by the as Pro-Council at Dunkirk. After 1WW he was appointed to the Foreign Office as Pro-Council at Dunkirk on the February 18th, 1925 and Acting Vice-Council there in 1925, 1927, 1935 and 1936. He held the rank of Vice-Consul at Bordeaux in June 1940. He was appointed to the post of Vice-Consul at Algiers on the December 5th, 1942 and awarded the M.B.E. in the Kings birthday Honours List of the June 2nd, 1943 and was also presented with his honour by General Charles de Gaulle. After a period of working in the Foreign Office in New York and Nantes he retired on New Years Eve 1953.
