Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A Third Battle of Ypres M.C. attributable to Acting-Captain (later Major) Servais Fitz-Walter Marius Del Court, M.C. and Bar, Middlesex Regiment, who was twice wounded at Ypres and received the Bar to his M.C. for gallantry in the North Russian Intervention in 1919: Military Cross (only), George V, reverse privately engraved 'CAPTAIN S. F. W. DEL COURT YPRES AUG. 16TH 1917', some contact marks, very fine.

(44.5 mm wide)

M.C. London Gazette 18/10/1917
(Bar to M.C. London Gazette 21/01/1920)

Servais Del Court was born in Bruges on the 18th of December 1895, to an English mother and a Dutch father. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment on the 23rd of December 1914. It was on the 16th of August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, that Del Court - now Lieutenant and Acting Captain - won his first M.C.

"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He was senior officer with the troops of an assaulting battalion. During the attack, when the flank of the battalion became exposed and the advance endangered, with great initiative and coolness under heavy machine-gun fire he directed the operations so as to enable the advance to continue. Though wounded, he continued in command with great contempt of danger until severely wounded a second time. When brought back he went first to Battalion H.Q. to make a personal report on the situation."

Del Court was taken prisoner by the Germans in May 1918, being repatriated in January 1919. He served in the North Russian intervention of 1919, performing the act for which the Bar to his M.C. (not extant) was awarded:

"For gallantry and good leadership. He ably commanded the company in every action from 15th May till 18th Aug., 1919, particularly on 23rd June, when the enemy was encountered in strength three miles north of Siding 9. Under very difficult conditions he was responsible for driving off the enemy armoured train with rifle grenades, and finally held reinforced enemy in check until ordered to withdraw."

He returned to civilian life between the World Wars, before being re-commissioned in the Middlesex Regiment for the Second World War, having also qualified as an interpreter of 'Holland Dutch' in 1938.