Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ M.M. group of three awarded to Corporal J. C. Norcombe, Royal Engineers

Military Medal, G.V.R. (510474 Cpl. J. C. Norcombe. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (510474 Cpl. J. C. Norcombe. R.E.) mounted as worn, very fine (3) £200-£240

M.M. London Gazette 24 January 1919.

John Charles Norcombe was born in Exeter in 1882 and is recorded in 1901 as working as a gas stoker for the Great Western Railway and living in Swindon. He served during the Great War with the Royal Engineers Transport and was awarded the Military Medal whilst attached to the 58th (London) Divisional Signal Company, Royal Engineers.

Returned home to Exeter, he caught the attention of the North Devon Journal on 17 July 1924 when he was involved in a serious motor collision causing £23 7s. 6d. of damage: described by the plaintiff as a ‘rapid driver’, it was alleged that Norcombe lost control of his motor car on the descent of Fremington Hill and struck an oncoming bus. The resulting action in Barnstaple County Court later acquitted him of all charges, the bus company’s insinuation of recklessness and speed on the part of the defendant being somewhat undermined by virtue of his passenger - Police Constable F. J. Harvey of Exeter Police Force. Norcombe is later recorded as having died in Exeter in 1942.