Description
1914-15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal, 18533 Pte Joseph Hartley, Grenadier Guards, who served with the Guards Machine Gun Regiment.
1915 star officially impressed: “18533 Pte J. Hartley. G. Gds.”
WW1 Pair: “18533 Pte J. Hartley. G. Gds.”
All confirmed with the Guards Machine Gun Regt, the medals are all on original silk ribbons and included is a scarce Guards Machine Gun Regiment cap badge, with double lugs for wear.
He is entered on the medal rolls for all 3 of these medals as a member of the “Guards Machine Gun Regiment” where he held the service number 150, they recall he initially was a member of the “Guards Machine Gun Battalion” and also the “Guards Machine Gun Regiment”.
He held the Grenadier Guards Service number of 18533.
Joseph first landed for service in the War in France on 16th March 1915.
Listed as “Wounded” on the War Office Casualty List dated 22nd June 1915, whilst serving in France with the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.
Just after his wounding, the Guards Division was formed in August 1915, alongside it was 3 Machine Gun Companies which would have included Pte Hartley.
After the end of the war, he was discharged under Kings Regulations 392 (XVI) on 3rd April 1919, meaning “No longer physically fit for war service.”
An informational video from the Vickers Machine Gun Collection and Research Association can be watched here:
Working separately from the similarly named Machine Gun Corps, the Guards Machine Gun Companies would provide the power of Machine Guns to the various Guards Regiment that took part in the war.
Known by some as the “6th Regiment of Foot Guards”, this short lived regiment of the Household Brigade only existed for a few short years before it was disbanded after the war in 1919.
It would become the only regiment in history of the Household Brigade to have been completely disbanded.
Joseph Hartley, came from Rochdale in Lancashire, where he was born circa 1891.
He was the son of Joseph and Susan Harley, of 1 Drivers Place, Rochdale. His father also worked as a Cotton Dyer’s Labourer.
Having worked as a Warp Dyer, likely in one of Lancashire’s many Cotton Mills, he wasted little time in enlisting after the outbreak of war.
He enlisted for “Kitchener’s Regular Army” on 22nd September 1914, in his home town of Rochdale.
Whilst on active service he was wounded in action, his hospital records noting that he received a “Gun Shot Wound to Hand and Arm”, which led to a lengthy 33 day hospital stay from 15th May 1918 until 17th June 1918.
He was transferred to 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester in June and would remain there for almost year as they tried to save his hand.
The looks to have been the cause of discharge, as the poor fellow would then spend the next 291 days stuck in Hospital after being transferred losing most of his fingers.
The remarks note:
“Hand was very dirty and septic.
14-8-1918, Large deep abscess lasceral region.
Incision under CHCL3 30.9.18 Massage
17.10.1918, 2 remaining fingers of left hand are hyper-extended at meta-carpo phalangeal joints making grip impossible, forearm rotation is poor.
29.1.19, removal FB from forearm.”
After the end of the war he returned home to his family in Rochdale, working with his father at John Brights Cotton Spinners in Rochdale as a “Warehouseman, Cotton”.
He is later shown on the 1939 Census, living with his wife Mary at 117 Holborn Street in Rochdale.
