62495 Sgt. Irvin Hullah, MM and Bar

Picture courtesy of the Guernsey Press and the Priaulx Library

M.M. London Gazette 27 October 1916.

Bar to M.M. London Gazette 18 July 1917.

Irvin Hullah was born on 16 May 1892 at Lyagate Hipperholme, Brighouse, Yorkshire, the son of James and Emma Hullah. In March 1900, Emma Hullah, nee Martin, married Benjamin Hollings at Halifax Parish Church; the family then went to live at St. Sampson's, Guernsey. Irvin Hullah enlisted into the Army at Bradford and served with the Royal Field Artillery. As a Bombardier serving with the R.F.A. he entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on ............. Serving with the the 53rd Battery R.F.A. he was awarded the Military Medal and Bar for his several acts of bravery. Two handwritten reports provide the details:

'(62495 Cpl. Hullah, 53 Battery R.F.A.) Your Commanding Officer and Brigade Commander have informed me that you distinguished yourself on (2nd and 20th August 1915) near (at Hooge). I have read this report with much pleasure. [Signed] Major-General Commanding 6th Division, British Army in the Field, 5th October 1915'.

'62495 Sgt. Irvin Hullah, 53rd Battery R.F.A. Your Commanding Officer and Brigade Commander have informed me that you distinguished yourself by your great gallantry on 18/5/17 at ______ when under very heavy fire, you endeavoured to rescue two men from a dugout which had been destroyed by an 8 inch shell. I have read this report with much pleasure. C. Ross Major-General Commanding 6th Division'.

Shortly after, on 17 June 1917, Sergeant Hullah was wounded but was able to rejoin his unit on 17 July and was on home leave in October. He was killed in action whilst serving with "C" Battery, 107th Brigade, on 4 April 1918, aged 25 years. A letter to his mother written by Battery Quartermaster Serjeant Brooks, dated, 4 July 1918, gave the circumstances of his death:

'........ I have obtained the following particulars from a fellow Sgt. who was in action at the time. On the morning of the 4th April, he was just behind his gun talking to our late Commanding Officer, Major J. R. Grieve, M.C., when a shell came over and struck both. A piece struck Irvin in the head and it is one consolation to know that death was practically instantaneous. He & I were chums, and in him I lost a companion who possessed and displayed the best virtues of manhood.....'

Major Grieve and Serjeant Hullah were buried where they fell near the Bois de Senecat (?), not far from the village of Hailles, 10 miles S.W. from Amiens. Both bodies were later removed to adjacent graves at the Moreuil Communal Cemetery Allied Extension, in the Avre Valley to the S.E. of Amiens. His name was also recorded on the Brighouse War Memorial. His Military Medal and Bar was presented to his mother, Mrs Emma Hollings, by the Lieutenant Governor and G.O.C. Guernsey at a public parade at the Fort George, Guernsey, on 26 February 1919.

Sold, by DNW Actions, with an array of original documents and letters, including: the recipient's Birth Certificate; handwritten reports from the G.O.C. 6th Division, on two postcards, providing details of his M.M. actions; Army B.104 Forms (3) reporting his wounding, his return to duty, and his death in action; 1914 Star and British War Medal forwarding slips addressed to 'Mrs E. Hollings, Nocq Rd., St. Sampson's, Guernsey'; Commemorative Scroll; Memorial Plaque enclosure; two letters to his mother from B.Q.M.S. Brooks concerning her son's death, dated 6 May 1918 & 4 July 1918 (both damaged); a letter from Army H.Q. Guernsey to Mrs Hollings giving the place, date and time of the presentation of her son's M.M. and Bar; a letter from the Rev. E. S. Merriman, attached 107th Brigade H.Q., R.F.A. concerning his grave, dated 14 March 1919; a letter from the next-of-kin of Major Grieve concerning the graves of Major Grieve and Serjeant Hullah.

Also with a letter to his mother from his fiancé, Jane Ruckin, of 17 Vale Road, Brighouse, dated 2 October 1918, giving poignant details of his last home leave:

'I feel that I must write a few lines .... Poor Boy, it will be just a year on Saturday since he came on leave .... One morning he said to me, "You know Janie, I am afraid Mother will be hurt because I have not spent my leave with her, what do you think I should have done?" I told him that I thought until one was married, "Mothers", should come first. He answered, "Yes, but I am thinking of my future, I shall want a home & a wife when the war is over". Poor Boy, he was sure of his Mother's love & he wanted to make sure of the other. But it was not to be, God has taken him to a Brighter Home. ....'

Medal Presentation

On 26th February 1919, Guernsey's Lt. Governor, Sir Launcelot E Kiggell presented Mrs Hollings with Irvin's posthumous Military Medal at Fort George, Guernsey.

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