Search results for VC.

Our April 2017 Newsletter

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  Wellington Quarry, Arras Welcome to the April Branch Newsletter, I hope that you are able to enjoy the sunnier weather that we have been having.  This month’s topical picture is of one of the exits from the Wellington Quarry in Arras, from which the attacking troops left the safety of the underground tunnels and advanced to the German lines a…


Our March 2017 Newsletter

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  Welcome to the March Newsletter.  Those of you able to come to our meetings will, I am sure, agree with me that we have already had a diverse and fascinating selection of talks so far this year.  Many thanks to Nigel and Norman for their hard work in arranging this for us.  The topical picture this month is of HMS Hardy an  Acasta-class destro…


18 August 1917 : Sgt Frederick John Hobson VC

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He was the son of John Hobson (a stone mason) and Sarah Hobson (née Wallace - Dublin born) then living at 14 Wood St, Pancras.  With the death of his father and mother when still young, leaving only one surviving sister, Fred joined the British Army and served with the Wiltshire Regiment during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). After a few years…


007: Spring 1983

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021: Winter 1987

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025: Spring 1989

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026: Summer 1989

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028: Spring 1990

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Major General Price-Davies The Letters of VC CB CMG DSO: From Captain to Major-General 1914-18

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Peter Robison (Ed) The History Press, Gloucs, £14.99, 255pp, 18 ills, detailed notes & refs, bibliog, index ISBN 978-0-7524-8736-6 Book Review by Andy Thompson Major General Price-Davies Price-Davies, awarded the VC during the Boer War, was comfortable, middle class and well connected (his brother in law was FM Sir Henry Wilson). He landed i…


The Road to Victory 1918

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Book review by Anne Clayton. The Road to Victory 1918 covers the fifty days between 8 August and 26 September when the Allied advance gathered momentum, from the first efforts east of Amiens, southwards to Peronne and then swinging to the north-east. Accounts are given of the sixty-four Victoria Crosses won during this time, including Scottish-bor…


079: April 2007

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Henry May VC : October 1914

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Henry May VC was one of five servicemen to win a VC on the Western Front in October 1914 and will have a commemorative paving stone dedicated to his memory at a ceremony to be held in the City of Glasgow on or around 22 October 2014. His stone will be the second one laid to a Glasgow VC, the one of Capt Harry Sherwood Ranken being the first. Both m…


Harold Mugford VC

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Harold Mugford was born at 149 Keetons Road, Bermondsey, London on 31 August 1894, the second son of Richard John Sanford and Rose Lillian Mugford (nee Parsons). The family later moved to 2 Gillett Avenue, East Ham where he attended the Shrewsbury Road School.  On leaving school, he found employment as a clerk with a shipping company, Furness Withy…


Victoria Crosses Won on the Western Front 1914-1918

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The Victoria Cross (VC) is awarded for 'conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy'. For a medal that is awarded for supreme gallantry, it is a singularly plain, a variable dark brown in colour and relatively unadorned object. It is also quite small, only 1.4 inches by 1.4 inches, weighs less than an ounce overall (about 25 grammes). All t…


How a Stockton man won the VC

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Ted Cooper writes how his granda won the VC. Edward Cooper was born in Stockton on the 4th May 1896. He left school at the age of 13 and by 1914 he was selling fruit for the Co-operative Society.  When war was declared, many of the Co-op’s horses were commandeered by the army and Ned was unable to work. He was put on an early holiday, during whi…


Lance Corporal William Cotter : 14 March 1916

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The following account is based on Gerald Gliddon's account of Cotter's career published in 'VCs of the First World War: Cambrai 1917' published by The History Press. Lance/Corporal (Acting) Corporal William Cotter was the second Allied soldier to win the Victoria Cross on the Western Front in 1916. He was a member of the 6th (Service) Battalion Th…


The Liverpool Scottish at Bellewaarde

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This article is intended to briefly tell the story of one not particularly well known action that took place on 16 June 1915. The starting point in the story is this photograph.   Taken near Hooge, a photo of the first attack on Bellewaarde Farm by the Liverpool Scottish, 6 am, 16 June 1915. Photo by Private F.A. Fyfe, 'Z' Company, 1/10th King's …


Victoria Crosses awarded on the Western Front

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The Victoria Cross (VC) is awarded for 'conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy'. For a medal that is awarded for supreme gallantry, it is a singularly plain, a variable dark brown in colour and relatively unadorned object. It is also quite small, only 1.4 inches by 1.4 inches, weighs less than an ounce overall (about 25 grammes). All thi…


'Five Warwick VCs' with Ian Binnie

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Ian Binnie, local teacher and historian, explores the VCs awarded to Warwickshire men, during the First World War. Ian will be about the five Royal Warwickshire Regiment who won the V.C. during WW1. I will provide details of their early lives, their military service, the events that led to the award of the V.C. a d their subsequent career. A tal…


ONLINE : 'The Last Father & Son VCs: The Remarkable Lives of Walter and William Congreve'

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The presentation will be live and online. This talk by Dr Spencer Jones explores the remarkable lives of Walter and William Congreve, a fearless father and son from one of Britain's most famous military families. Walter was a stoic ironman who overcame physical disability through sheer force of will, whilst his son, William, was a firebrand who …


Queen Victoria’s Last VC

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26 June 2020 marks 120 years since Private Charles Ward delivered a message through a storm of bullets, an action that would later see him receive the Victoria Cross (VC). Charles was the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry’s only VC winner of the Boer War, and the last VC winner to receive the honour from Queen Victoria herself. Charles was welcom…


George Peachment: one of the youngest recipients of the Victoria Cross : 25 September 1915

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George Peachment was, when he enlisted, not much different from many other young volunteers in that he lied about his age to try to 'do his bit' for King and Country. His first attempt to enlist was unsuccessful (according to a family member, to try to make him look older, he borrowed his father's bowler hat when he tried to enlist aged 17 years an…


The Cavalry at Monchy-le-Preux

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The Battle of Arras started on 9 April, Easter Monday,  1917. The most famous action in this battle is the storming of the heights of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian Corps on the left of the British attack. Success elsewhere on the front was good, if not quite so spectacular. Cyril Falls (who wrote the volume of the Official History covering 1917) state…


St George’s Day at Zeebrugge

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One of the reasons for Britain and her Empire going to war in 1914 was because of the perceived danger to the UK’s maritime trade posed by a hostile Germany controlling the ports on the European side of the English Channel and North Sea. The German conquest of much of Belgium, including the Belgian coast line, brought about this feared scenario wit…


On-Line Joint Meeting with Cheltenham Branch (1)

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In another joint on-line meeting with the Cheltenham & Gloucester branch, our own James White will speak on Rex Warneford VC and his exploits in destroying a Zeppelin over Ghent in 1915. This presentation is based on the one prepared for the very successful Wiltshire Branch Great War Centenary Event in 2015.   All members and guests are welco…


‘Forgotten Air VCs of the Great War’ – Jim Nicholson

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During the Great War, some 628 Victoria Crosses were awarded, of which only nineteen were to aviators. In his talk Jim Nicolson will detail the stories of just four of the lesser- known VC recipients with some jaw-dropping accounts of the actions for which they were awarded their decoration. Jim is no stranger to aerial VCs, being the nephew of J…


Online Presentation on Alan McLeod, VC, by Roger Gunn

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Canadian historian Roger Gunn, author of Masters of the Air, and Raymond Collishaw and the Black Flight, will give an online presentation on Lt. Alan McLeod, VC, to the Central Ontario Branch, Western Front Association, May 28, 2022. Guests are welcome to join the session and can find the link at cobwfa.ca. Members meet and greet starts at 10am wit…


Lanoe Hawker, VC: Pilot, Innovator and Inventor

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Lanoe Hawker was born on 31 December 1890 in Longparish, Hampshire, and soon showed himself to be an intelligent boy.  At the age of ten he went to Geneva with his younger brother for schooling; with Lanoe returning to England two years later.  In 1905 he decided to join the Royal Navy and successfully entered the Britannia Naval College at Dartmou…


“Rex Warneford RNAS VC” by Ian Castle

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Wild Hawk Hunting - Rex Warneford – the first Zeppelin VC In June 1915, Rex Warneford, Royal Naval Air Service, was hailed a national hero after his stunning achievement in becoming the first man to destroy a German Zeppelin in the air. He was feted everywhere he went, yet those who served alongside him knew him as a restless spirit, a loner, but …


Out Now. Bulletin 124. June 2023

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Our June 2023 issue of Bulletin came out today. In this issue you will find the following news, features and articles.   Contents Page President’s Column 2 AGM - 22nd April - Minutes  3/5 German Capture of Fort Douaumont 6 ExCo Matters 6/7  The British West Indies Reg…