Oscar was awarded the Military Medal, aged 24, for his actions on 21 and 22 March 1918. This was the beginning of the German Spring Offensive. In just 5 hours the Germans fired one million artillery shells at the British Lines held by the 5th Army - over 3,000 shells every minute. Oscar's medal was announced in the London Gazette on 6 August 1918, some 4 months after his death. There is no citation for the Military Medal, but the war diaries relate two incidents in which he could have been involved: "A party of the No 8 Storm Battalion effected an entry into the front line of the Company on the immediate left of the Battalion under cover of a bombardment. The party was driven out by 8.00 am leaving several dead in the trench." "At 8.00 pm on the way to HIND AVENUE 'C' Company Headquarters met 8 Germans with 5 British prisoners, they killed all the Germans released the prisoners and brought them in." In 1918 Oscar was married on 17 January, won the Military Medal on 21/22 March and disappeared between 9 and 19 April.

Christopher Hazell