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Archive for the ‘Victoria Crosses’ Category

John Vincent Holland VC

Posted in Ireland, Victoria Crosses on April 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Fighting for the village of Guillemont began in July 1916 and it was eventually captured on 3 September by the 20th Division and a brigade of The 16th Irish Division. Two men from The Irish Division were awarded The Victoria Cross during the final attack, Private Thomas Hughes and Lieutenant  John Holland. On our tour, Recalling the Somme in April 2012, we had the privilege of taking a member of the Holland family to visit the site. During the fighting on the Somme in 1916, a number of locations gained notoriety for the bitter fighting which took place around them and Guillemont was certainly one of these. Its position made the village ideal for preventing  British progress in this sector of the battlefield. Geoffrey Malins, the famous World War 1 photographer, described the village after its eventual capture. “ _ _  the village of Guillemont did not exist , in fact it was an absolute impossibility to tell where the fields ended and the village began. The village had been turned by the Germans into a veritable fortress; trenches and strongpoints, bristling with machine guns commanded every point which gave vantage to the enemy.” 

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Captain John Vincent Holland

John Vincent Holland was from Athy  in County Kildare, the son of the local vet. Though he began veterinary studies himself, he was obviously an adventurous character and by 1914 he was working on railways in Argentina. He returned home immediately on the outbreak of war and was commissioned into The Leinster Regiment. He was wounded during the Second Battle of Ypres with The Royal Dublin Fusiliers and by September 1916 was a lieutenant  in The 7th Leinster Regiment as a bombing officer.  His action on 3 September was seen as crucial in the final capture of Guillemont. Not content with bombing dugouts in the area of his initial objectives, John Holland led a group of 26 bombers through the British artillery bombardment into the main section of the village still occupied by the Germans. He led his group in continuing to bomb dugouts, eventually taking 50 prisoners and breaking the resistance of the defenders.  For this action he was awarded The Victoria Cross. Remarkably, he was quite ill during this action and after the capture of the village was immediately admitted to hospital. Five of the group of 26 were killed in the action. Of the others, two were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal , six were awarded The Military Medal and one was recommended for a commission.

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Michael Holland at the memorial to The 16th Irish Division in Guillemont. John Holland was the son of his grandfater’s brother. Michael and John were born in the same house.

Though he received a civic reception on his return home and was celebrated as a local hero at the end of 1916, political events in Ireland took on a dramatic change. Popular opinion turned against the British government and the British army and at the end of the war, John Holland left Ireland to live in England and in Kenya. However, this was not the end of his military career. Both he and his two sons fought during World War 2. John served as a Major in The Indian Army and his eldest son, Captain Niall Holland MC, sadly died of wounds and is buried in Burma. His youngest son served in The Royal Artillery. John Holland eventually  emigrated to Australia and died in Tasmania in 1975.

For details of our tours go to: http://www.guidedbattlefieldtours.co.uk/

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The Footballers’ Memorial at Longueval

Posted in England, Memorials, Scotland, Uncategorized, Victoria Crosses, Wales on February 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

On 21 October 2010 Gareth Ainsworth, a player with Wycombe Wanderers, blew a football whistle at Longueval on The Somme battlefield and the crowd which had gathered began a silent tribute to association footballers who had lost their lives during World War 1. This event was part of a ceremony to mark the erection of a monument to the footballers’ battalions of The First World War, the 17th and 23rd Battalions of The Middlesex Regiment. Money for the memorial was raised by supporters, staff and players of English and Welsh Football League clubs. Amongst the crowd were relatives of footballers who had served in the war.

As men responded to Lord Kitchener’s appeal for recruits in August and September 1914, it appeared that professional footballers were reluctant to enlist. The programme of professional match fixtures continued while pressure began to grow on footballers to join the forces. Professional footballers were subject to contracts and could not enlist without their club’s consent, but the pressure mounted as leading figures called on players to set an example in serving their country in its hour of need. In September 1914 Arthur Conan Doyle joined the appeal. “There was a time for all things in the world. There was a time for games, there was a time for business, and there was a time for domestic life. There was a time for everything, but there is only time for one thing now, and that thing is war. If the cricketer had a straight eye let him look along the barrel of a rifle. If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle.”

Eventually in December 1914, The Conservative MP William Joynson Hicks oversaw the creation of the 17th (1st Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. The first player to join the battalion is reputed to have been Frank Buckley, the England centre-half who was eventually promoted to the rank of major.  Buckley had already served in the army before becoming a professional player and had played for a series of teams, including Manchester United, Manchester City and Derby County. He was seriously wounded during the course of the war, having shrapnel pierce his lung and later being gassed. He never played football again. The battalion soon gained a full complement of recruits, though most were fans attracted to serving with their footballing heroes. A second footballers’ battalion was raised in June 1915, which became The 23rd Battalion of The Middlesex Regiment. The Football Association eventually joined the campaign for recruits and clubs were urged to release players from their contracts, leading to growing numbers of players joining the colours.

The Footballers Memorial at Longueval

The campaign to recruit players was not confined to England. One of the most remakable football stories is of The Heart Of Midloathian. Despite the fact that the team were enjoying an enormously successful season, every member of The Hearts team joined the army on 26 November 1914. Seven of the team never returned, three being killed on the first day of The Battle of the Somme.  The players of Clapton Orient, later Leyton Orient, followed Hearts example when the whole team enlisted, three of whom died in the war. From Wales, Leigh Roose had been capped 24 times for his country and was awarded The Military Medal on The Somme, but was killed in October 1916.

Walter Tull

One of the most interesting characters to emerge from the story of footballers during World War 1 is Walter Tull. Walter Tull was born in 1888 in Folkestone to Daniel Tull, a carpenter from Barbados, and a local woman, Alice Palmer. By 1897 both of Walter’s parents had died and he was brought up in an orphanage in Bethnal Green, London. Walter Tull’s footballing ability became evident and in 1909 he was signed by Tottenham Hotspur, becoming the football league’s first ever black outfield player. In 1911 he transferred to Nothhampton Town and on 21 December 1914 joined The 17th (1st Football) Battalion of The Middlesex Regiment. The battalion landed in France in November 1915 and by the summer of 1916, Tull’s obvious leadership qualities saw him promoted to sergeant. He took part in The Battle of The Somme, but was invalided back to England with trench fever. While still in Britain he was proposed for officer training and was commissioned  and posted back to The Middlesex Regiment as a second Lieutenant. Despite army regulations, which required that officers be of white European stock, Walter Tull became the British Army’s first black officer. He served in Italy with The 23rd  ( 2nd Football) Battalion and was mentioned in dispatches. He returned to France in 1918 and was killed on 25 March 1918 during the German offensive  at Arras. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on The Arras Memorial.

Two footballers were awarded The Victoria Cross. Lance Corporal Wlliam Angus of The 8th Battalion Highland Light Infantry had played for Celtic before the war. On 12 June 1915 he volunteered to rescue an officer from his home town who was lying wounded in front of the German trenches at Givenchy. His remarkable act of bravery is described in his VC citation: “For most conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty at Givenchy, on 12th June 1915, in voluntarily leaving his trench under very heavy fire and rescuing an officer who was lying within a few yards of the enemy position. Lance Corporal Angus had no chance of escaping the enemy’s fire when undertaking this very gallant action, and in effecting the rescue he sustained about forty wounds from bombs, some of them being very serious.” Angus miraculously survived, though he lost an eye and part of a foot. Donald Bell had played for Bradford City and was one of the first professional footballers to join the army. Enlisting as a private in 1914, he was commissioned in 1915 and was awarded The Victoria Cross for his single handed attack on a German machine gun position near La Boisselle on 5 July. He was killed in a similar attack 5 days later and died never knowing that he had been awarded The VC for his exploits on 5 July. A memorial was erected in 2000 to mark the spot at which he fell and in 2010 his VC was sold for £210,000.

Donald Bell

Many other footballers never returned home to continue their careers.  England international, Edwin Latheron won two First Division Titles with Blackburn Rovers and was killed at Passchendaele in October 1917 while serving with the Royal Artillery. Sandy Turnbull was from Kilmarnock and won two FA Cup Final medals and two First Division championships with Manchester City and Manchester United. He was killed serving with the   East Surrey Regiment  during The Battle of Arras in May 1917. Three Manchester United players were killed during the war, five from West Ham and seven from Newcastle United. The Football League was suspended in 1915 and it has been estimated that of Britain’s 5000 professional footballers 2000 joined the armed forces.

The commanding officer of The 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment summed up his feelings towards the men under his command: “I knew nothing of professional footballers when I took over this battalion. But I have learnt to value them. I would go anywhere with such men. Their esprit de corps was amazing. This feeling was mainly due to football- the link of fellowship which bound them together. Football has a wonderful grip on these men and on the army generally.”

For information on tours to Longueval and The First World War battlefields, click here.

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Captain Noel Chavasse VC and Bar

Posted in England, Uncategorized, Victoria Crosses on February 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Noel Godfrey Chavasse was one of twins born at Oxford in 1884. He was one of seven children of the Reverend Francis Chavasse and his wife Edith. In 1900 the family moved to Liverpool when the Reverend Chavasse became Bishop of that city. Noel and his twin brother, Christopher, were talented individuals, both gaining admission to Trinity College Oxford and both representing Great Britain at the 400 metres in the 1908 Olympic Games.

Graduating in philosophy with first class honours, Noel went on to study medicine and qualified as a doctor in 1912. At university Noel had been a member of The Officer Training Corps Medical Unit and in 1913 he joined The Royal Army Medical Corps as a lieutenant and was attached to The 10th Battalion of The Kings (Liverpool Regiment), The Liverpool Scottish. As a territorial battalion, the men of the Liverpool Scottish were not obliged to serve overseas, but as with other members of the battalion, Noel Chavasse was keen to serve when war was declared in 1914 and landed in France with his battalion on 2 November. His brother Christopher was already in France as an army chaplain. All four Chavasse brothers served in the army, as did sister May as a VAD.

Experiencing life in the front line for the first time at Kemmel in November 1914, The Liverpool Scottish went on to suffer heavy casualties during the Spring and Summer of 1915 in The Ypres Salient. It was in June 1915 that Noel Chavasse was awarded the Military Cross after going out into no man’s land over a two day period to bring in wounded men at Hooge.

The battalion was moved to The Somme in July 1916 and took part in the attack on Guillemont on 9 August, suffering 280 casualties. Noel Chavasse, now a captain, tended to wounded all day out in the open. He spent the next night out in no man’s land with a party of volunteers bringing in many casualties, some from within 25 yards of the German lines, all the time under sniper fire. For his gallantry at Guillemont Noel Chavasse was awarded The Victoria Cross.

The citation for his VC published in The London Gazette read:

During an attack he tended the wounded in the open all day, under heavy fire, frequently in view of the enemy. During the ensuing night he searched for wounded on the ground in front of the enemy’s lines for four hours. Next day he took one stretcher-bearer to the advanced trenches, and, under heavy fire, carried an urgent case for 500 yards into safety, being wounded in the side by a shell splinter during the journey. The same night he took up a party of trusty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell hole twenty five yards from the enemy’s trench, buried the bodies of two officers and collected many identity discs, although fired on by bombs and machine guns. Altogether he saved the lives of some twenty badly wounded men, besides the ordinary cases which passed through his hands. His courage and self-sacrifice were beyond praise.

By the summer of 1917 Noel Chavasse was back with The Liverpool Scottish in The Ypres Salient where the battalion took part in the attack on the first day of The Third Battle of Ypres (The Battle of Passchendaele), 31 July. Initially establishing his first aid post in a dug out at Wieltje, he moved forward with the attack and established an aid post at Setques Farm. Though himself wounded in the head by a shell splinter, Noel Chavasse continued to tend the wounded and at night went out to search for wounded from the attack. He was wounded again, but still he refused to go back behind the lines for treatment and continued treating men from the continuing fighting until, on 2 August, a shell landed in his first aid post, killing or wounding everyone in it. Though suffering from a gaping wound, Noel Chavasse crawled for help. He was treated at a casualty clearing station at Brandhoek but died on 4 August. For his gallantry, Noel Chavasse was awarded a bar to his Victoria Cross and thus became the only man to be awarded two Victoria Crosses during World War 1.

The London Gazette reported:

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty, when in action. Though severely wounded early in the action whilst carrying a wounded soldier to the Dressing Station, Capt. Chavasse refused to leave his post, and for two days not only continued to perform his duties, but in addition went out repeatedly under heavy fire to search for and attend to the wounded who were lying out. During these searches, although practically without food during this period, worn with fatigue and faint with his wound, he assisted to carry in a number of badly wounded men, over heavy and difficult ground. By his extraordinary energy and inspiring example, he was instrumental in rescuing many wounded who would have otherwise undoubtedly succumbed under the bad weather conditions. This devoted and gallant officer, subsequently died of his wounds.

Noel Chavasse is buried at Brandhoek New Military Cemetery and is the only serviceman to have two Victoria Crosses carved onto his Gravestone. His youngest brother, Aiden, was also killed in 1917; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate.

For guided tours to Ypres and The Somme click here.

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Sapper William Hackett VC

Posted in England, Tommy's Stories, Uncategorized, Victoria Crosses on February 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

On the outbreak of war in 1914, William Hackett  was married with two children and was a miner at Manvers Main Colliery at Mexborough, a village between Barnsley and Rotherham. Having been rejected by the infantry on three occasions on account of his age of 42, he was readily accepted when he volunteered for The Royal Engineers as a tunneller at the end of October 1915.  His enlistment papers describe him as 5 feet 2 ½ inches tall and weighing 118 pounds. Also listed on the papers are his wife Alice and his two children: Arthur born in 1901 and Mary born in 1903.

Sapper William Hackett

The Germans had gained an early advantage in tunnelling on The Western Front and the British Army was determined to initially match the Germans in tunnelling skills, and to eventually gain superiority. It was typical of men with mining or tunnelling experience such as William Hackett, that within a month of being recruited he was in France as part of 254 tunnelling Company of The Royal Engineers. Although William Hackett’s signature appears on his attestation papers, he was virtually illiterate. However, we have a written record of many of his experiences in France through the letters written on his behalf by his friend Sapper JR Evans.

On 22 June 1916 five men were working below ground near Givenchy in France driving a tunnel across no man’s land towards German positions, when a German mine was fired which brought down the gallery, trapping the men. A rescue party managed to reach the five men after digging for two days and three of them were brought out safely. However, Sapper Hackett refused to be rescued. The fifth man, Private Thomas Collins from Swansea and attached to the tunnellers from The Welsh Regiment, was badly injured and unable to move. An extract from The London Gazette of 4 August 1916 tells the rest of the story:

“_ _ _ _ when entombed with four others in a gallery owing to the explosion of an enemy mine. After working for 20 hours, a hole was made through fallen earth and broken timber, and the outside party was met. Sapper Hackett helped three of the men through the hole and could easily have followed, but refused to leave the fourth, who had been seriously injured, saying,” I am a tunneller, I must look after the others first.” Meantime, the hole was getting smaller, yet he still refused to leave his injured comrade. Finally, the gallery collapsed, and though the rescue party worked desperately for four days, the attempt to reach the two men failed. Sapper Hackett well knowing the nature of sliding earth, the chances against him, deliberately gave his life for his comrade”.

William Hackett was awarded The Victoria Cross, which was collected by his wife from Buckingham Palace. On his death she received a pension of 21 shillings for herself and her two children. Sapper Hackett was clearly highly regarded by his comrades, who raised a sum of money for his widow and children, which was particularly welcome as Arthur had lost his leg in a mining accident while his father was away at war. In a moving letter of thanks, Alice Hackett explained that she has banked £67 to be used to maintain her children at secondary school. She knew that William would be pleased that Arthur would not have to return to the pit and she only hoped that her children would grow up to be worthy of their brave father.

The Ploegsteert Memorial

Sapper Hackett was the only tunneller to receive The Victoria Cross during The First World War and the medal is now in The Royal Engineers Museum at Gillingham. His body and that of Private Collins were never recovered. Private Hackett is commemorated on The Ploegsteert Memorial.

Mining is an aspect of the fighting during World War 1 which has traditionally received little attention. The Germans had first exploded mines underneath Indian troops near La Bassee in December 1914 and following  this there were further explosions beneath British troops in January 1915. The British were ill equipped to respond to this threat.  After one failed attempt to undermine German positions, the Germans erected a notice for the benefit of the British across no man’s land which read in English, “No good your mining. It can’t be done. We’ve tried.” However, the situation changed rapidly, largely thanks to John Norton Griffiths, a civil engineer, millionaire business man and Member of Parliament.  He pursuaded The Minister of War, Lord Kitchener, that he had the answer to the German mining threat; in February 1915, the now Major Norton Griffiths began to organise specialised tunnelling companies, recruiting men with mining and tunnelling experience. By 1917 there were 30,000 men in Royal Engineer tunnelling companies and Britain gained a clear upper hand in the war underground.

The explosion of mines under German lines became a regular feature of British offensives. The scale of some of the explosions involved can be gauged by the size of The Lochnager Crater, still visible next to the village of La Boisselle, created on the first day of The Battle of the Somme in 1916. The Lochnagar crater is 300 feet wide and 70 feet deep. The most spectacular use of mines was in the British capture of The Messines Ridge in June 1917, when 19 huge mines were exploded beneath German positions, the largest comprising of over 90,000 pounds of explosive. A number of the craters from these mines are clearly visible today, such as The Caterpillar Crater near Ypres.

Mining was a terrifying experience for soldiers on the surface, who  at any moment might find themselves literally blown off the face of the earth or, perhaps worse, buried alive under rock, clay and soil. The only effective defence against mining was counter mining and the men below ground required nerves of steel in a cat and mouse game, where each side sought out the other’s tunnels. Men often worked in tunnels while also able to hear the enemy working in close proximity.   Throughout their time underground, each side lived with the knowledge that they must seek to blow the enemy’s tunnels, trapping them under tons of earth, if they were to survive themselves.

For tours which visit Ypres, Messines, Ploegsteert and The Lochnagar Crater click here.

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Lieutenant Cecil Sewell VC and the Sacrifice of a Greenwich Family

Posted in England, Families, Tommy's Stories, Victoria Crosses on February 4, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Harry Sewell, was born around 1860 and brought up in Greenwich.  Following in his father’s footsteps, Harry began work as a Railway Clerk.  He was ambitious and, by1901, he had qualified as a solicitor and had his own office employing others.  He was married to Mary and they had 5 sons and 4 daughters.  When war broke out in 1914, Harry, the eldest son, was Deputy Coroner for Kent , Herbert was a barrister at law and Cecil was in the process of following the family tradition and was studying for a career in Law.

The war changed all of this.  All five brothers enlisted, together with their father who was aged 55. Harry senior joined the Royal Army Medical Corp on 13th December 1915. He served in the Balkans and later in Mesopotamia. He survived the war and lived to the age of 82 years having retired to Worthing where he died in 1941, his wife Mary having died at Greenwich age 69 in 1928. Lieutenant Frank Sewell, who served in The Royal Garrison Artiller, and Corporal Leonard Sewell, who served in The Honourable Artillery Company, also both survived the fighting. Harry, Herbert and Cecil all died, the latter in an act of bravery for which he was awarded The Victoria Cross.

 Second Lieutenant Henry Sewell served in The Royal Field Artillery and lost his life in November 1916 as the Battle of the Somme was ending, after five months of fighting that had seen the demise of so many young men.  Henry’s body was never found and he is commemorated on The Thiepval Memorial. Lieutenant Harry Sewell served in The Queens Own Royal Field Artillery 21st Battery in Mesopotamia; he was invalided home due to illness and died in August 1917.  Harry’s funeral was held at St Alphege Church Grrenwich and he is buried in Charlton Cemetery.

 Cecil, the youngest son, served in 3rd Light Tank Battalion and died one year and 9 days after Harry died.  He died saving his men and won the VC for this gallant action at Frémicourt, near Bapaume, France, on August 29, 1918.  One can only imagine the grief of Mary Ann Sewell and her daughters in the family home as the news of the third death was received.  Their grief must have been mixed with fears for the safety of the last sons and their father.

Cecil Harold’s VC is recorded in the London Gazette of 30th October 1918. In 1920 his remains were removed from Bapaume, where he was buried in 1918, and moved to Vaulx Hill Cemetery at Vaulx-Vraucourt. His parents received his VC, which was presented at Buckingham Palace by King George V on 13th December 1918. Cecil Sewell’s V.C. medal is in the possession of the Royal Tank Regiment  Museum, Bovington,Dorset.  He enlisted in the 21st Royal Fusiliers, Machine Gun Section, and served with them briefly in France before gaining a commission in the Royal West Kent (Queen’s Own) Regiment; he was then posted as a Lieutenant to C Battalion, Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps (forerunners of the Tank Corps), where he served in Whippet Tanks.

His citation tells the story:

“When in command of a section of Whippet Light Tanks in action this officer displayed most conspicuous bravery and initiative in getting out of his own tank and crossing open ground  under heavy shell and machine-gun fire to rescue the crew of another Whippet of his section which had side-slipped into a large shell-hole, overturned and taken fire. The door of the tank having become jammed against the side of the shell-hole, Lt. Sewell, by his own unaided efforts, dug away the entrance to the door and released the crew. In so doing he undoubtedly saved the lives of the officer and men inside the tank as they could not have got out without his assistance. After having extricated the crew, seeing one of his own crew lying woundedbehind his tank, he again dashed across the open ground to his assistance. He was hit in doing so, but succeeded in reaching the tank when a few minutes later he was again hit, fatally, in the act of dressing his wounded driver. During the whole of this period he was within full view and short range of the enemy machine guns and rifle-pits, and throughout, by his prompt and heroic action, showed an utter disregard for his own personal safety.”

Lieutenant Cecil Harold Sewell  VC  Born 27th January 1895  died 29th August 1918

For details of tours click here

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