Distinguished Service Order for 7th Bedfords Officer

Distinguished Service Order by Robert Prummel on Wikipedia

Saturday 3rd June 1916: Temporary Second Lieutenant Harry Driver, 7th Bedfordshire Regiment, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Order. The following is the official statement which appeared with the announcement on Wednesday. “For conspicuous gallantry on several occasions, notably when leading a successful raid on the enemy’s trenches. He forced the enemy back to their dug-outs, entered a deep dug-out and personally bombed the occupants, shot the sentry over another dug-out and, though himself wounded in two places, remained at the point of exit till every man was reported present. He was wounded a third time on his way back to our trenches”(1).

Source: Bedfordshire Times 2nd June 1916

(1) One suspects he was a man who revelled in the thrill of war. At the end of World War One he transferred to 46th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers which went to Russia to take part in the Russian Civil War against the Bolsheviks. He died on 10th August 1919 aged 32 and is buried Troitza churchyard with a memorial in Archangel Allied Cemetery. The raid took place on the night of 26th/27th April 1916.