Mason was an Officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment from 1914 and then in the Machine Gun Corps during the First World War . He joined the army about two months after marrying a chorus girl Daisy Fisher . On 17 November 1914 he received his commission as a temporary Second Lieutenant . He rose to the rank of Major and was awarded the Military Cross for his great personal outstanding gallantry when commanding the 59th brigade machine gun company at the taking of Guillemont during the Battle of the Somme . The report written on 7 September 1916 ( from the Public Record Office and the National Archives in Kew ) is Mason 's description of the battle . The 59th machine gun company had 16 machine guns and about 170 men . About half the men died in the battle . While his unit was waiting in line , he occupied himself doing a self-portrait using oil paints , which were presumably left by a French officer in the trench . Mason served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment with the brother of Michael Balcon ( who worked with Mason on '' The First Offence '' , '' I was a Spy '' and '' Take My Tip '' as Producer ) . Additionally he served in the Machine Gun Corps with Clive Brook who later became an actor and a friend . Mason spent the whole four years in the Western Front , and was awarded the Mons Star – the medal of those who were in it at the beginning
Mons Star
1914 Star
Herbert Mason