A first world war 1919 ‘North Russia’ MM medal group of
three awarded to 57783 Private Harry Maycock, 13th Bn. Yorkshire Regiment
(Green Howards).

George V Military Medal named to 57783 Pte. H.
Maycock. 13 / York. R.
British War Medal named to 57783 Pte. H. Maycock. York. R.
WW1 Victory Medal named to 57783 Pte. H. Maycock. York. R.

The medals are in good condition.

London Gazette: 13th August 1919 (MM)

Harry Maycock was born on 8th September 1894 at Clay
Cross in Derbyshire, Maycock was the son of Joseph, a miner, and his wife
Eliza.  The 1911 census recorded them
living at 3 Centre Street, Holly Bank, Hemsworth.  Harry, then 16, was working as a pony driver
in the pit while his 13-year-old brother was cleaning and sorting coal.

He enlisted at Pontefract on 11th December 1915 and
after serving with the 3rd Bn was posted to the 13th Bn. Yorkshire regiment in
1918.  His Short Service Attestation form
shows that he was then aged 21 years and 2 months, and lived at 103 Barnsley
Road, Hemsworth.  He gave his occupation
as miner.  Maycock will probably have
joined 13th (Service) Bn, The Green Howards in the UK.  Having served in France and Flanders from 6th
June 1916, the 13th Bn were reduced to a cadre after the German Spring
Offensive and returned to the UK on 30th June 1918.  They were reconstituted in July 1918 to be
sent to North Russia, where a mixed force including 13,100 British, 4,820
Americans, 2,350 French, 1,340 Italians, 1,280 Serbs and 11,770 White Russians
would fight the Bolsheviks.  The purpose
of the British campaign, which had begun in February 1918, had been to prevent
British munitions, equipment and coal falling into Bolshevik hands, to maintain
the Eastern front against Germany after the Russian collapse, to prevent
Finland’s ports and equipment falling into German hands, and to strangle the
Bolshevik menace at birth.  The armistice
in November 1918 would negate many of these aims but, by then, the forces had
been despatched and the Russian winter would render withdrawal impossible.

In the Green Howards’ Gazette, John Powell
described the experience of their two battalions sent to Russia.  In July 1918, the 13th Green Howards began to
reform at Aldershot, although no CO was appointed until February 1919.  Assembling at Dundee, the 6th and 13th Bns
boarded the 10,000 ton ex-liner Traz-os-Montes. 
Trouble began at once.  A private
soldier in the 6th Bn wrote that the vessel was a ship not fit for men to travel in… everywhere dirty… men have hardly
room to move (yet officers live in absolute luxury).  A disgrace to the British Army and an insult
to the men…  Some encouragement for men
to fight for their country when quartered and treated like pigs.  Men disgusted.  Mutiny occurred on board… about 6pm.  About 300 men rushed the gangway and went
ashore.  Cause of riot, officers allowed
ashore, men not, insufficient food, bad treatment, quarters etc.  All men on board on decks cheering, shouting
and booing.  Sight that will never be
forgotten.  All men (of which I was one)
played havoc with Brigadier-General, CO [of 6th Bn] and officers and sang ‘Tell me the old, old story’ in response to
promises.  Things resumed about
8.30pm.  Sentries put all over the boat,
wearing revolvers…

Another 6th
Battalion man recorded his view of the same incident. 
The officers were asking the men to play
the game and be quiet, but they are told it is out turn now.  The Colonel draws his revolver and says the
next man to go over the side of the ship will be fired upon, he is told that
rifles will soon be fetched out and so he has to put his revolver away…  In another place the Brigadier-General has a
crowd around him and the lads are just telling him what they think of him.

To prevent men
disembarking, the ship was towed out from the shore and sailed in the early
hours of 17th October.  Having developed
a pronounced list and reached a point 40 miles north of the Shetland Islands,
the ship burst a boiler.  A destroyer
towed her into Swarbacks Minn, where the
men fished over the side or went for route marches.  On 6th November she crept out of the
Shetlands in very rough seas for Scotland for further repairs when the steering
gear broke and a man was lost overboard. 
Somehow they managed to reach the Orkneys and took refuge in Inganess
Firth, where a gale blew up and ‘boat stations’ was called at night.   Corporal Bradshaw remembers:

It was very difficult standing on deck, in
consequence of the terrific wind and the ship’s list.  We had to stand in groups to hold one another
up and keep one another warm… time dragged on and someone hit upon the splendid
idea of improving our lot by singing.  Although in this terrible predicament, the lads
sang ragtime with gusto, interspersed with some good old English home songs.

As dawn broke they were drifting nearer the cliffs
of Marwick Head when the ship’s bottom struck the rocks; some of the men were
landed on a beach but disaster was averted when the ship was eventually towed
off. 

Next day, to everyone’s relief, they were towed
into Kirkwall harbour.

Here the Green
Howards celebrated news of the Armistice. 
They heard also that a District Court Martial had sentenced the leaders
of the on-board mutiny at Dundee to between 14 days’ and 6 months’ detention
apiece.  On 21th November they boarded
Huntsend and landed at Murmansk six days later.

Disembarking at
Murmansk, they were employed on working parties, guard duties, fatigues, train
protection and helping the Sappers erect buildings.  On Christmas day a 6th Bn officer was found
murdered and his Russian murderers were shot by firing squad ten days
later.  One company of each battalion was
designated a mobile company and trained in skiing and winter survival by Sir
Ernest Shackleton and a team of polar experts.

At the end of
January General Ironside, on the Dvina front below Archangel, asked the War
Office for reinforcements.  It was no easy task.  The White Sea was frozen, there was no road
from Soroka to Onegs [beyond which Ironside’s force would assume
responsibility for transporting the troops],
little overnight shelter and there was no fodder on the route for reindeer, the
best form of transport.  Maynard was able
to put 300 infantrymen and half the machine gun company on an ice-breaker
making its last run to Archangel until the spring.  The rest of the men, numbering some 2,000,
were first taken down to Soroka by train. 
Dog teams were harnessed to ambulance sledges.  Every available horse was requisitioned to
carry supplies and the men set out across the bitter landscape, a white world
where frozen trees burst with cracks like rifle shots.  They marched in parties of up to 300 on fixed
stages and the whole movement was carefully controlled.  The men arrived at Onega with only a few
cases of frostbite.  But it was no picnic
and it was especially unfortunate that the only infantrymen Maynard had to send
Ironside were those same men of the Yorkshire Regiment who had suffered such
hardships on the voyage to Murmansk and who had then been employed in the
back-breaking and soul-destroying work of labouring on their arrival there.   

In Feb 19 a CO,
Lt-Col Henry Lavie, was finally appointed just as 237 Brigade (13th Yorkshires,
1st East Surreys and 253 MGC) moved to the Archangel area.  While 300 men of the 13th Bn travelled to
Archangel by sea on board an ice breaker, the remainder, split up into three
parties departing on consecutive days, began to leave on 4 Feb. Their War Diary
records their movement, in various parties and by various routes and means of
transport – including sleds drawn by reindeer – to Archangel and thence to Obozerskay
and Seletskoe.

Here another
short-lived but more serious mutiny took place. 
John Powell’s article continues the story:

…on the 22nd Ironside received a telegram from the
Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lavie, with the stark news that
his men refused to parade.  Lavie, an
experienced and able 40-year-old regular officer from the Durham Light Infantry
who had already commanded a York & Lancaster battalion in France, had taken
over command only three weeks earlier, the day his men had set off on their
epic journey by sleigh…

The leading elements of the battalion had reached
the small town of Seletskoe by 22nd February and were billeted with the King’s,
who were about to leave, as well as smaller units from the RAMC, the Army
Service Corps and the Machine Gun Corps. 
Private Riley Rudd of the RAMC described what happened when the
Yorkshires took over their billets:

“Saturday 22nd February – All have gone on strike
– held meetings in the hut last night and passed resolutions that they must be
withdrawn from Russia immediately. 
Others to the effect that censorship be removed from letters in order
that the people in England may get to know the true state of affairs out here
and that a cable be sent to L George demanding the immediate withdrawal of all
troops in Russia.  They all positively
decline to go up the line or to obey orders but are conducting themselves in an
orderly manner.

Having arrested
the two sergeants who acted as spokemen when he met them, Col Lavie seems to
have succeeded in persuading the mutineers (mostly from the mobile ski company)
to parade and march.  On 24th February
Ironside visited the Bn and spoke to the men. 
Three days later he reported to the War Office:

Although the men were orderly, they were very
obstinate and persistent.  I have (group
omitted from secret telegram) 3 NCOs and 30 men for C[ourt] M[artial]… 
There appears to be questions troubling all men here whatever nationality.  It is largely lack of news from England and a
feeling of isolation which upsets even the best of men.

Ironside later
observed: I never wish to see the
hang-dog look on the faces of both officers and men.  They were young and inexperienced and serving
under very difficult circumstances in a political struggle of which they
understood little.  It is to their credit
that they did the rest of their service in Russia with the greatest energy and
good will.

According to
Lawrence James,
two NCOs and thirty men from the Yorkshires, the ASC and the Machine Gun Corps
were tried by court martial and several were sentenced to be shot.  The death sentences were commuted to terms of
imprisonment by Ironside, who later attributed his clemency to ‘secret orders’
from King George V…

The two sergeants
are reputed to have been sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment.   Many of the records of the courts martial –
including theirs – seem not to have survived, but four that have record
sentences of two years’ hard labour passed on a sergeant and three corporals of
the 13th Bn.

The unrest was
not confined to the Green Howards.  Other
units, including the Royal Marines and a French ski unit, experienced similar
troubles.  Meanwhile, within three weeks
of the mutiny the 13th Bn were in action on the Dvina and at
Shredmehrenga.  En route, according to Churchill’s Crusade:  along the road to the front [they] were
covered by Russian machine guns at the request of the British commander.   

A few weeks later the War Office sent a reassuring cable to
the GOC to be drawn to the attention of all troops.

Although you are cut off from your country by the
ice, you are not forgotten.  Your safety
and well-being, on the contrary, is one of the main anxieties of the War
Office, and we are determined to do everything in our power to help you and
bring you safely home.  You were sent to
North Russia to help draw off the Germans from attacking our armies in France,
and undoubtedly you helped last year to keep large numbers of German troops
away from the battlefield and so enabled a decisive victory to be won.

Whatever may be the plan of action towards Russia
decided on by the League of Nations, we intend to relieve you at the earliest
possible moment, and either bring the whole force away or replace you by fresh
men.  These reliefs are being prepared
now and will come through the ice to your aid at the earliest moment when the
ships can break through.  Meanwhile, your
lives and your chance of again seeing your home and friends and your fellow
countrymen, who are looking forward to giving you a hearty welcome, depend
absolutely upon your determination and dogged British fighting qualities.  All eyes are upon you now, and you represent
the British army which has fought and won and which is watching you confidently
and earnestly.  You will be back home in
time to see this year’s harvest in, if you continue to display that undaunted
British spirit which has so often got us through in spite of heavy odds and
great hardships.  Only a few more months
of resolute and faithful service against this ferocious enemy and your task
will have been discharged.  Carry on like
Britons, fighting for dear life and dearer honour, and set an example in these
difficult circumstances to the troops of every other country.  Reinforcement and relief are on the way.  We send you this personal message with the
most heartfelt wishes for your speedy, safe and honourable return.

The Green Howards’ history continues the story of their two battalions
in North Russia.  

Russian mud, which
made much of the country all but impassable when the thaw arrived, was to
receive the bones of many Green Howards during the coming months. To halt the
steady Bolshevik pressure from the south towards Archangel involved holding the
single railway line and the rivers, the sole arteries of communication with the
rest of Russia. So it was that fighting devolved upon small forces. In this
way, the Green Howards fought for the next three months, often in company
detachments and switched from one area to another as the threat changed. More
often than not they would be supporting and bolstering White Russian units
which Ironside was equipping and training in the hope that the anti-Bolshevik
forces might rally and form a stable government in North Russia, so allowing
the British and Allied troops to leave. In defending and attacking small
isolated posts, six officers of the 6th Battalion and thirty-six other ranks
are mentioned as having been killed or wounded. The 13th was more fortunate,
losing only three men. The Communists were not the only enemy.  When summer came mosquitoes swarmed, bringing
malaria as well as making life almost unbearable for those operating in the
forests.

Maycock’s MM was
gazetted on 13th Aug 1919:

His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased
to approve of the award of the Military Medal for bravery in the Field to the
under-mentioned Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men:-  Archangel Command

                Yorkshire
Regiment

                57783
Pte. Maycock, H., 13th Bn. (Hemsworth)

 The Gazette published 59 MMs to British
soldiers (and 30 or so to Canadian troops) serving in the Archangel
Command.  21 of these were to men of the
Green Howards – 6 of the 6th Bn and 15 of the 13th. 

Harry Maycock married Esther J Clark in Hemsworth in the autumn of 1937.  In 1939 he was listed as a coal miner (hewer
– heavy work) living at 103 Barnsley Road, Hemsworth with his parents and wife.  Esther was listed as an ARP Warden.

In 1961 his will was listed in the London Gazette:  MAYCOCK, Harry, 103 Barnsley Road, Hemsworth,
Retired Collier. 10th June 1961.  Midland
Bank Executor and Trustee Company Limited, 33 Park Row, Leeds 1.  The National Probate Calendar records his
death in Headlands Hospital, Pontefract; his estate totalled £5,546 12s
1d. 

Maycock’s Military Medal was one of 220 awarded for
operations in the Archangel area 1918-19.