Somme Stretcher Bearer's Medals Auctioned

This story deserves to be better known.
"As a stretcher bearer at the Battle of the Somme, Lance Corporal William Peniston was kept horribly busy – but it seems he never lost his nerve.
The First World War confrontation raged for five months, and left 95,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers dead, with another 325,000 injured. Little territory was won.
Yet only now is the remarkable story of L/Cpl Peniston’s bravery under fire during the battle emerging – as three medals he won in only three weeks on the Somme are put up for auction.
The battle, on the Western Front in France, began on July 1, 1916, with Britain suffering almost 60,000 casualties on the first day alone, a third of them killed.
On August 26, L/Cpl Peniston, then 27, won his first decoration of the battle, the Military Medal, during the fight for Delville Wood.
On September 11, he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal – ranked immediately below Britain’s highest honour for valour, the Victoria Cross – for his bravery at Woodlane.
His official commendation for the decoration said: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an action.
‘His company came under enemy barrage fire which caused considerable casualties, and he remained behind under heavy shelling attending to the wounded, and helped to carry them to the aid post. He undoubtedly saved the lives of many seriously wounded cases by his prompt action, and set a fine example to the stretcher bearers under him.’
And four days after that remarkable display of courage, L/Cpl Peniston secured his third medal in as many weeks at the Somme by again being awarded the Military Medal for his bravery in continuing his duties during the fighting at Flers-Courcelette. This was marked by a bar being added to the Military Medal he had won three weeks before.
He went on to be awarded a third Military Medal in 1918, which was again marked with a bar.
L/Cpl Peniston, who was born in Sheffield in 1889, had worked as a miner at Thoresby colliery in Nottinghamshire before the war and resumed that job after it ended.
When he joined the 9th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, he was a natural choice to serve as a stretcher bearer throughout the four-year war because beforehand he had volunteered as a corporal in the St John Ambulance Brigade."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4134090/Somme-stretcher-bearer-won-three-medals-three-weeks.html#ixzz4WD1V5McU