A VERY RARE "OLD CONTEMPTIBLE" HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY (MIRACLE SURVIVOR) 1st LIFE GUARDS 1914 Star & Bar Trio.

A Very Early Entrant,15th August 1914 who Survived the brutal actions at Klein Zillbeke & Zandvoorde Ridge on 30.10.1914.







1914 Star:
2713. TPr G.H. HOPKINS. 1/LIFE GDS:
War & Victory:
2743. TPR G.H.HOPKINS. 1-L.GDS

(Later, from 10.3.18 3574/5 Guards Machine Gun Rgt.)
Two M.I.C.s confirm the changing numbers & unit.

An excellent & rare trio to a miracle Household Cavalry survivor who served throughout The Great War and lived to wear his medals and to tell the tale in 1918. Gilbert Hopkins joined the regular army in April 1909 and entered France on 15th August 1914. He survived the German mass attack at ZANDVOORDE RIDGE & KLEIN ZILLBEKE where many fellow guardsmen were wiped out.
Only 68 men from the entire unit were unwounded.




THE DISAPPEARANCE OF "C" SQUADRON, 1st LIFE GUARDS at ZANDVOORDE TRENCHES, OCTOBER 30th 1914.

Lord Hugh Grosvenor, ancestor of the Late Gerald Grosvenor (Duke of Westminster) was a Captain in charge of a Squadron of the 1st Life Guards when on the 30th October 1914 he was killed in action on the forward slopes of the Zandvoorde Ridge during the massive German attack. This took the form of a storm of shrapnel and high explosives and by 9:00am the Household Cavalry trenches had been literally blown to pieces. The Brigade was forced to retire slowly down the hill keeping up a good covering fire as it went.

According to the account in Lord Ernest Hamilton's book "The First Seven Divisions" which was published in 1916, Lord Grosvenor's Squadron, 1st Life Guards along with C Squadron 2nd Life Guards and Lord Worsley's Machine Gun section of the Blues, did not succeed in withdrawing.

The order to retire may not even have reached them as those who had survived the bombardment and who awaited the German infantry attack, fought it out to an absolute finish.

An Officer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers trenches on the left of the Zandvoorde trenches, subsequently described the Household Cavalry's defence of the Zandvoorde position as "One of the finest feats of the war".

In the book "The Aristocracy and The Great War" (Gerald Gliddon ) said this regarding the Household Cavalry's defence of the Zandvoode Trenches - "Owing to the extremely exposed position they simply disappeared without trace or even a trail of prisoners of war. As a consequence the four Squadrons of the 1st Life Guards were reduced to two."

A RARE, CLASSIC & LOVELY EARLY TRIO TO A MAN WHO SERVED IN WHAT IS PERHAPS THE MOST FAMOUS REGIMENT IN THE BRITISH ARMY.
(In EF condition with original clasp & original ribbons)

£395