The Eccles Journal for September 1915 told an incredible story of a Patricroft soldier’s heroism under fire: such was his bravery that the Czar of Russia awarded him the Cross of the Order of St George.
The man in question was Battery Sergeant Major Richard ‘Dick’ Edwards, who was serving with the Royal Field Artillery in France.
His parents lived at 31 Roberts Street in Patricroft, Eccles.
In a letter to his wife, BSM Edwards explained how this act of bravery occurred.
He told her that on the fateful evening he was ordered to take his field weapon along with two other gunners and creep within 50 yards of the enemy trenches.
The plan was to blow up a farmhouse which contained two German heavy machine guns which were raining damage, death and destruction onto his infantry trenches.
Edwards crept up on the farmhouse surrounded the horrific sight of the corpses of hundreds of dead German soldiers.
With his two volunteers they approached and he loaded his gun with lyddite – a form of high explosive which could penetrate steel armour – then he fired and blew the farmhouse to “smithereens”.
Despite knowing that there were enemy soldiers closing on his position and the bullets whistling past his ears, he reloaded and fired another round into the melee.
He then manhandled the heavy gun back the safety of his trench – expecting to be killed at any minute with the defeaning sounds of battlefield carnage going on all around him.
The soldiers in the trenches thanked Dick and his comrades warmly and they all suggested that they should get a medal of some kind for their bravery.
In the letter to his wife Edwards reflects that, “I have thought since of those poor men in that building, who were only doing their duty, but we had ours to do, and we did it.
“I remember your Father saying to to me before I came here, that, ‘Dick, I know you will do your duty’.”
The Order of Saint George is the highest and most prestigious possible purely military decoration given out by the Russian Federation.
The only other British serviceman that we could find who had been awarded this honour is the fighter pilot Captain Albert Ball, who is credited with shooting down 44 enemy planes and was posthumously awarded UK’s highest possible military honour, the Victoria Cross, in 1917.
I wonder if Richard Edwards survived the Great War and what has happened to this medal, surely he is the only man in Eccles to have been awarded this honour?
If anybody has any family details about this heroic man we would love to hear from you via Facebook, Twitter or by email to tonyflynn@salfordonline.com.
