AS Amy Beechey was presented to King George V and Queen Mary in April 1918 after she had lost five of her eight sons in the First World War, when the Queen thanked her for her sacrifice she replied: “It was no sacrifice, Ma’am. I did not give them willingly.”
In Pendleton, Lancashire, the news of one such grievous loss came by post in August 1916 to the mother of Ernest, Harold and Edward Stevenson who were all killed in action on the same day in the previous month on July 1 (the first day on the Somme).
Ernest’s 1914-15 medal trio and memorial plaque is now for sale at £1350 with Great War Medals at the biannual Britannia Medal Fair on Sunday, March 19, at the Carisbrooke Hall of the Victory Services Club in Seymour Street, Marble Arch, London.