Post by Les on Aug 5, 2006 9:17:30 GMT
The Museum is urgently trying to raise around £2500 estimated to be needed to bid for for the death plaque issued to the family of 2nd Lt Joseph Henry Collin, VC.
The Museum already holds Collin's Victoria Cross and hopes to win the plaque, to be auctioned at Carlisle on 11 August, so it can display it alongside the medal. Please try and help them with a small donation which can be sent by cheque to The Curator, King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, Market Square, Lancaster, LA1 1HT. I believe you can also make a credit card donation by ringing the Museum on 01524 555619.
Joseph Collins was born in Jarrow but grew up in Carlisle. He enlisted in 1915 and was commissioned into the 1/4th battalion in 1917. He was killed on 9 April 1918 near Givenchy. The citation for his posthumous VC reads:
"For most conspicuous bravery, devotion to duty and self-sacrifcie in action. After offering a long and gallant resistance against heavy odds in the "Keep" held by his platoon, this officer with only five of his men remaining, slowly withdrew in the face of superior numbers, contesting every inch of ground. The enemy were pressing him hard with bombs and machine gun fire from close range. Single handed, 2nd Lt Collin attacked the machine gun tea. After firing his revolver into the enemy, he seized a Mills grenade and threw it at the hostile tea, putting the gun out of action, killing four of the team and wounding two others. Observing a second hostile machine gun firing, he took a Lewis gun and selecting a high point of vantage on the parapet whence he could engage the gun he, unaided, kept the enemy at bay until he fell mortally wounded. The heroic self-sacrifice of 2nd Lt Collin was a magnificient example to all."
The Museum already holds Collin's Victoria Cross and hopes to win the plaque, to be auctioned at Carlisle on 11 August, so it can display it alongside the medal. Please try and help them with a small donation which can be sent by cheque to The Curator, King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, Market Square, Lancaster, LA1 1HT. I believe you can also make a credit card donation by ringing the Museum on 01524 555619.
Joseph Collins was born in Jarrow but grew up in Carlisle. He enlisted in 1915 and was commissioned into the 1/4th battalion in 1917. He was killed on 9 April 1918 near Givenchy. The citation for his posthumous VC reads:
"For most conspicuous bravery, devotion to duty and self-sacrifcie in action. After offering a long and gallant resistance against heavy odds in the "Keep" held by his platoon, this officer with only five of his men remaining, slowly withdrew in the face of superior numbers, contesting every inch of ground. The enemy were pressing him hard with bombs and machine gun fire from close range. Single handed, 2nd Lt Collin attacked the machine gun tea. After firing his revolver into the enemy, he seized a Mills grenade and threw it at the hostile tea, putting the gun out of action, killing four of the team and wounding two others. Observing a second hostile machine gun firing, he took a Lewis gun and selecting a high point of vantage on the parapet whence he could engage the gun he, unaided, kept the enemy at bay until he fell mortally wounded. The heroic self-sacrifice of 2nd Lt Collin was a magnificient example to all."