The Russian Order of St George is the highest purely Military Russian medal, established by Catherine the Great and awarded during WWI by Tsar Nicholas II to soldiers from allied forces. Several hundred were awarded to British Officers, NCOs and other ranks, it is however quite a rare award, although coincidentally Sgt Justin Cowley of the Royal Field Artillery, a native of Mawdesley, was awarded the same honours in December 1916.
Harold, born 1893, was the son of builders' bookkeeper Charles Chisnall of 40 Chapel Street. Harold had been a keen and active member of the 1st Ormskirk Scouts. Prior to enlistment he was working as a Drawer at the Bickerstaffe Colliery.
In August 1913 he embarked on a crazy scheme, making a bit of a nuisance of himself when after meeting some old school friends who had joined the navy, he decided he wanted to join the navy, but he couldn’t afford the ten guineas for the uniform. He hatched a cunning plan to blackmail Mr William Lax, the retired solicitor who lived at 1 St Helens Road. He based his plot on a story he had read reported widely in the press in which Lord Rothschild had been similarly blackmailed. The scheme involved an anonymous note posted in Ormskirk and listing instructions to leave £30 in a bag near benches in Scarth Hill Lane (St Helens Road). A list of threats whereby if Mr Lax caused the plan to fail included the poisoning of the youngest son (and nephew of Mr Lax) of local solicitor Mr Parker of Derby Street. Mr Lax immediately went to see Superintendent Hodgson and the plan to capture this blackmailer who had threatened to murder someone was put in place.
Seemingly Harold struggled to understand his own plan and apparently failed to find the bag with the money in that the police left at the bench. It took a couple of attempts to lure him out! Eventually PC McCann of Burscough, who had been lying in wait for two nights, managed to spot Harold on the third night and arrested him.
Harold was locked up for 10 weeks prior to the trial. Mr William Leak Hutton, the Scout Master who had known Harold for years, supported him with a testimonial at the trial explaining his out of character actions.
Harold ended up at Liverpool Assizes and was very lucky not to be locked up. The Judge stated that locking Harold up with hardened criminals would send him down the wrong path in life. Harold was released on his own recognisance and given a £5 Bond and his father a £20 Bond with orders to stay out of trouble. Harold did have a previous conviction as a youth aged 15 when he was Bound Over for stealing bike lamps and pumps from bicycles parked up behind the Golden Lion. Along with a lad named Helm of the same age he had also taken bicycle lamps from Rainford Colliery. Helm had tried to pawn the items at Makinson’s Pawn shop, Church Street.
By 1915 Harold had enlisted with the 9th Kings Liverpool after being in the Territorials for some time, he was sent to France to find the excitement he seemed to crave. At the Battle of the Somme, his actions won him the MM, the DCM and the Russian Order of St George, 4th Class. His citation for the DCM reads: “For conspicuous gallantry during operations. When the battalion HQ dug out was blown in, he worked at digging the men out under heavy shell fire. When a new headquarters was established, he ran out and connected new wires, re-establishing communications. During an attack a week later, when all the wires were cut, he laid a completely new system.”
In December 1916 Harold returned to Ormskirk for 10 days leave and he was greeted by crowds of well-wishers and hailed a hero.
He was injured in both legs in 1917 but went back to serve on. After the armistice, Harold put in a request to go home for family reasons. This was refused, but he went anyway, being declared AWOL. Due to that event his medals were withheld but on appeal re-instated.
Harold is honoured on the 1St Ormskirk Scouts Memorial to those who also served, which hangs in the Wigan Road Scout Headquarters.
In 1918 Harold received a Commission into the Royal Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant. He deserted in December 1918 and in September 1919 he was convicted at Luton of stealing a bicycle and a safety razor and sentenced to four months hard labour. In his possession at the time of his arrest was a gold Watch presented to him in December 1916 by the Ormskirk Boy Scouts. He had spent almost a year travelling around England as a civilian in the company of a Reading woman acting as his wife. At the time of his arrest there was a warrant out for him from not just Ormskirk for various thefts but also from the Metropolitan Police, who wanted to arrest him for various thefts of money and jewellery from a Deptford Apartment house, where he had posed as a Naval flying Officer.
Harold married Julia Anne Jewell in 1920, and Julia lived in Kirkdale close to where Harold was still serving in the military. They had a son Cedric Reginald Jewell Chisnall in 1926. Cedric served as a Lieutenant in the REME in WW2 and after marrying in 1948 he emigrated to Melbourne Australia.
Copyright Dot Broady Hawkes, 2025