Original Item: Only One Available. This is an exceptionally poignant British WWI Memorial Plaque commemorating 2nd Lieutenant Derrick Haughton Gardiner Fishbourne of the Royal Garrison Artillery, a young officer killed during the Battle of Arras in May 1917. Fishbourne was only 20 years old when he was killed near Monchy while serving as a section commander with the 99th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. More than simply a named “Death Penny,” this example is accompanied by an extensive collection of printed research documenting his short military career, service with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, death in action, burial at Arras, and unusually moving contemporary tributes from his commanding general and a fellow officer. Those surviving words describe a courageous and immensely popular young officer whose calmness and good humor under fire had a profound effect on the men around him.

Derrick Haughton Gardiner Fishbourne received his commission on:

December 29, 1915

He served as a Second Lieutenant in the:

Royal Garrison Artillery

and is recorded with the:

99th Siege Battery

The Royal Garrison Artillery played an essential role in the increasingly artillery dominated warfare of the Western Front. Unlike the more mobile field artillery batteries supporting infantry formations at closer ranges, RGA siege batteries operated heavier guns and howitzers intended to destroy fortified positions, enemy artillery, transportation infrastructure, strongpoints, and other targets beyond the capabilities of lighter field pieces.

By 1917, counter battery fire had become one of the artillery’s most important missions. Heavy batteries attempted to locate and suppress enemy guns while themselves becoming priority targets for German artillery. Officers serving with these batteries therefore worked in an environment where observation posts, gun positions, ammunition areas, and command posts could all come under sudden and extremely heavy fire.

Fishbourne went to France with the British Expeditionary Force and served in France and Flanders.

His service culminated during the Battle of Arras, the major British offensive launched in April 1917. British and Commonwealth forces initially achieved significant advances, but the fighting soon developed into a series of extremely costly attacks and counterattacks against increasingly strong German defenses.

The area around Monchy-le-Preux, east of Arras, became the scene of particularly severe fighting. The village occupied important high ground and changed hands amid repeated artillery bombardments and infantry actions. Heavy artillery batteries operating around the Arras front were continually engaged in supporting these operations and suppressing German positions.

Fishbourne was killed in action near Monchy on:

May 6, 1917

while acting as a section commander.

He was only 20 years old.

Fishbourne was buried at:

Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery
Arras, France

The cemetery contains thousands of Commonwealth burials associated with the fighting around Arras, making his final resting place another direct connection to one of the British Army’s major battles of 1917.

What makes the history accompanying this plaque particularly moving are the surviving contemporary accounts of Fishbourne’s character and conduct in action.

The General Commanding wrote:

“He has shown a spirit of devotion to duty which is the true soldierly spirit which is going to win the war. His calmness and cheerfulness in the battery under fire showed courage of the highest order, which reacted on the men. He did credit to his country and his name, and his Major. I can only assure you he is most deeply and sincerely mourned by us all, officers, N.C.O.’s and men, both for his cheerful spirit and keenness in everything connected with the battery.”

A brother officer offered an even more personal remembrance:

“I feel I have lost one of the best friends I have ever had. He was always so cheerful and brave, and was, in fact, the life and soul of the battery. He never lost his cheerfulness under the most adverse circumstances. He has bucked me up many times by his cheery example. All the men liked him, he never lost his temper, he was always the same. He did not understand the meaning of the word ‘fear.’”

These are unusually powerful pieces of testimony to accompany a Memorial Plaque. They transform the bronze plaque from an anonymous symbol of British wartime loss into the memorial of a specific young officer remembered by the men who served alongside him.

The plaque comes with a substantial quantity of printed research relating to Fishbourne and his military service. Together, the documents provide an excellent foundation for additional investigation into his family, education, commissioning, service with the Royal Garrison Artillery, the activities of the 99th Siege Battery, and the circumstances surrounding his death near Monchy.

The British Memorial Plaque was created after WWI as an official memorial to those from Britain and the wider Empire who died as a consequence of the conflict. Each plaque was sent to the deceased service member’s next of kin.

The large circular bronze plaques soon became popularly known as:

“Death Pennies”

or:

“Dead Man’s Pennies”

because their circular bronze form resembled an enormously enlarged British penny.

Each measured approximately 4.72 inches, or 120mm, in diameter, compared with only approximately 1.215 inches for the contemporary penny coin.

Approximately 1,355,000 plaques were eventually issued, requiring roughly 450 tons of bronze. Production and distribution continued long after the Armistice, in some cases into the 1930s, as the government recognized personnel whose deaths were officially considered consequences of wartime service.

Despite those large production figures, every plaque was individually meaningful because the deceased service member’s name was incorporated directly into the casting.

No rank was included.

This was deliberate. The government intended that the sacrifice of a private soldier, sailor, airman, or officer be commemorated equally. As a result, Fishbourne’s plaque bears his name without identifying him as a Second Lieutenant.

The design itself was chosen through a public competition attracting more than 800 submissions. The winning design was created by sculptor and medallist Edward Carter Preston, who entered under the pseudonym:

Pyramus

The finished design depicts Britannia standing beside a lion and holding a trident. In her extended left hand she holds an olive wreath above the tablet bearing the deceased’s name in raised lettering.

An oak branch with acorns appears below the name tablet. Two dolphins symbolize British sea power, while at the bottom of the plaque a second lion attacks the German imperial eagle.

The designer’s initials:

E.CR.P.

appear above the lion’s front paw.

Around the perimeter is the inscription:

HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR

For the approximately 1,500 plaques issued to commemorate women, the wording was changed to:

SHE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR

The reverse is blank, technically making the piece a plaquette rather than a conventional medal.

Production initially took place at the Memorial Plaque Factory at 54/56 Church Road, Acton, London, beginning in 1919. Early Acton produced plaques were not individually numbered, while some later examples have a small number stamped behind the lion’s rear leg.

More than a century later, the Memorial Plaque remains one of the most immediately recognizable symbols of British loss during the Great War. What separates this particular example from the many plaques whose histories have become separated from them is the unusually substantial surviving record of the man whose name appears in bronze.

Derrick Haughton Gardiner Fishbourne received his commission as a young man, went to France with the British Expeditionary Force, served with the heavy artillery during the Battle of Arras, and was killed near Monchy while commanding his section. The contemporary descriptions of his courage, cheerfulness, and effect upon his men give this memorial an unusually personal character. Combined with the extensive printed research, his identified 99th Siege Battery service, and his documented burial at Arras, this is an outstanding addition to a Royal Garrison Artillery, Battle of Arras, named officer, British KIA memorial, or advanced WWI collection.