Beschreibung:

A rare Great War Mesopotamia operations D.C.M., prisoner of war’s M.M. group of eight awarded to Warrant Officer Class 1 H. Rodman, Royal Army Medical Corps Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (15289 Sjt. H. R. M. Rodman, R.A.M.C.); Military Medal, G.V.R. (15289 Sjt. H. R. M. Rodman, R.A.M.C.); 1914 Star, with slide-on clasp (15289 Cpl. H. R. M. Rodman, R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (A.W.O. Cl. 1 H. R. M. Rodman, R.A.M.C.); Defence Medal 1939-45; Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (15289 Sjt. H. R. M. Rodman, R.A.M.C.); France, Croix de Guerre 1914-1918, the earlier awards with contact marks and somewhat polished, thus nearly very fine (8) £1600-1800 Footnote D.C.M. London Gazette 16 August 1917: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He collected wounded in the open and organised his stretcher-bearers all day and night under heavy fire.’ M.M. London Gazette 3 June 1916. French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 26 September 1917. Harry Rowland Martin Rodman enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps in March 1901. Trained as a dispenser, he remained employed on the home establishment until embarked for Gibraltar in late 1905, where he was advanced to Lance-Corporal in April 1907 and to Corporal in October 1909. Back home by the outbreak of hostilities, Rodman arrived in France on 17 August 1914, as a medical orderly on attachment to the Cavalry. Taken prisoner at Warneton on 16 October, he was transported to the Hospital Militaire at Lille, where he assisted in looking after British - and German - wounded. In the following month, via Giessen, he was transported to a large P.O.W. camp at Wittenberg, where he remained until reaching England in January 1916. The circumstances behind his repatriation remain unknown but may well have been of a result of him contracting Typhus. As confirmed by official records, he was awarded his M.M. in respect of his time at Wittenberg, most likely for his courageous work during outbreaks of Typhus and Cholera, incidents to which he referred when interviewed by British Intelligence on his return. Nor were his nursing skills limited to British patients, for French and Russian prisoners benefited in equal measure. Here, then, the likely circumstances behind the award of his Croix de Guerre. The following extracts have been taken from this debrief (T.N.A. WO 161/98/505 refers): ‘They treated the English worse than the French or Russians. When we arrived at Wittenberg station, the German soldiers hit us with rifle butts and bayonet scabbards. The civilians as we marched to the camp insulted us and hit us with sticks and umbrellas and threw mud at us. When we got into the camp the German soldiers would hit us with their hands or bayonet scabbards. A German sanitate (R.A.M.C.) ripped the cross and three of the buttons off my tunic, and pricked me in the abdomen with a knife, making it bleed ... ’ ‘The German sentries would bully and insult the English especially. They would go round the companies in pairs, one with a rifle and bayonet, the other with a revolver and leading a big dog. When they came near an Englishman the sentry would let out the lead of the dog so that it could spring at the Englishman and jump on him and tear his clothes. I have seen a coat with the sleeve half torn out which, one of the Sergeants told me, had been done by a dog ... ’ ‘Typhus broke out in early December, altogether about 600 cases among the English. There were about 50 deaths in our men, including three R.A.M.C. officers. I was about the first Englishman to go down with Typhus. I caught it looking after the Russians and French. I also had pneumonia at the same time. I did not have a wash from the time I got ill on 7 January until I could do something for myself on 26 February. When the Typhus got bad, the German doctors went out of the camp, and the prisoners were attended to by the doctors who were prisoners ... ’ Following his return home, Rodman was embarked for Mesopotamia in April 1916 and served in that th