Newspaper Article

Rugby Advertiser - 17 July 1915
HILLMORTON
OFFICER'S APPRECIATION OF HIS BRAVERY

Mrs. Astill of Hillmorton has received a letter from an officer in which he speaks in glowing terms of the bravery of her son, Pte Herbert Astill, 5th Oxon and Bucks L.I, whose death from wounds we  reported in our last issue and whose photograph we reproduce.

The writer says: "As a stretcher-bearer he was excelled by no-one in the regiment, and he earning high praise from his senior officers, for in the action of the 22nd of June he went out under heavy rifle fire over a barricade before the German lines, not once but many times, and brought in wounded men on his shoulders. It was two days after this, on June 24th, that he was hit in several places by a high explosive shell, which burst near him as he was running out to search for wounded men who had been hit by another shell that fell just before. He had a wound in the stomach which finally proved fatal after 8 days in the hospital.

We are all very sorry to lose this brave lad, who had disguished himself by his very plucky work under fire, and who, I believe is to be recommended for the D.C.M. His name was sent in to headquarters for gallantry in action.

Residents of Hillmorton, while joining with the mother in mourning his loss, may well be proud that such a brave soldier has been produced by their village.

Bravery Medal

The newspaper report mentions that Herbert had been recommended for a Distinguished Conduct Medal but I cannot find his name in the London Gazette nor are medal awards discussed in the 5th Battalion War Diary and so, on the face of it, Herbert did not get the recoginition his bravery seems to have deserved.