VCs of the First World War 1914

by Gerald Gliddon

  He found that his VC was a hindrance when he tried to seek employment working in the mines and his colleagues claimed that he received special treatment from the management. He said that ‘the miners made it tough for me’. For a time he became a commissionaire in a local cinema and lived in Leeds where his address was Abbey Terrace, Hunslet. Finally, he lived in rooms at Westgate Road, Newcastle and died at the General Hospital on 13 November 1935 at the age of forty-nine, after a lengthy stay. He was buried four days later at Ryton and Crawcrook Cemetery with full military honours in section A, plot 234. For fifty years his grave was unattended and obscured until the local branch of the Coldstream Guards Association was alerted. On 15 March 1986 the Association held a service of thanksgiving at the graveside and dedicated a headstone on the site.

  Dobson had left his medals to his regiment but three of them, including the VC, turned up in a pawnbroker’s shop in Newcastle in 1936. In agreement with his family the medals were retained by the Regimental Collection. He had been awarded the Cross of the Order of St George, Fourth Class (Russian), the 1914 Star, the British War Medal 1914–19 and the Victory Medal. The two missing medals were in the possession of Dobson’s eldest son. In May 1988 his widow wrote to the regiment asking if they would like them. She said that her late husband had always intended to present the medals to the regiment but had never got round to it. Frederick Dobson and Thomas Young, both of whom died in County Durham, are two of the VC holders remembered on a sandstone memorial in the grounds of High Spen Primary School, Hugar Road, Borough of Gateshead, which was unveiled on 8 July 2007.

  So Frederick Dobson was yet another of the men who, although he had been decorated with the nation’s highest military honour in 1914, was to subsequently lead a very short and tragic life.

  H. MAY

  Near La Boutillerie, France, 22 October

  Twenty-three Victoria Crosses were to be recommended by Sir John French during the initial fighting of the first five weeks of the First World War. There was then a gap of three weeks before another such award was made. It was not until 1918, the last year of the war, that the distribution of these coveted decorations was again so widely made. The Allied and German Armies were fighting a very different type of war in those first few weeks of August and September 1914 – something which is often overlooked. In 1914 from October onwards, the battle area became much wider and less confined than it had been in August and September.

  L. Cpl. F.W. Dobson (see previous chapter) won the VC close to the village of Chavonne on the Aisne on 28 September at the same time as the Battle of Aisne was beginning to peter out. The idea was for the French to take over the British positions which they began to do at the beginning of October. The British then made their way by train to the northern part of the battlefield. During October there was fighting around Arras and the Germans were determined to try and capture the Belgian ports including Antwerp in a dash towards the Belgian coastline. In addition the Kaiser was desperate to capture the Belgian town of Ypres, and the First Battle of Ypres began on 19 October. On 22 October the Germans took the town of Langmarck and on that day the battle around the industrial town of La Bassée also began.

  Pte. Henry May was a member of the 1st Battalion Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). His battalion, along with the 2nd Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1st Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) and 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was formed into the 19th Infantry Brigade of the 6th Division commanded by Maj. Gen. L.G. Drummond. The Cameronians had landed in France on 15 August and joined up with the other three battalions on 22 August at Valenciennes. The next day the 19th Brigade was ordered to join up with Gen. Sir H. Smith-Dorrien’s II Corps. The Cameronians moved to Mons on the extreme left on the left flank of the Mons-Condé Canal. However, they subsequently withdrew before encountering the enemy. On the 26th at Le Cateau the 19th Brigade had only a supporting role to play before retreating to St Quentin and Ollozy, covering 56 miles in 36 hours. Later they were to fight at the Marne and on the Aisne.

  The brigade returned northwards and became a link between the British II and III Corps where it was to be heavily engaged in the region of Fromelles, south-west of Armentières, against units of the German XIII Corps.

  At daybreak on 22 October Pte. Henry May was in a platoon under the command of Lt. D.A.H. Graham. This platoon was acting as a covering party in a ditch to hold the enemy in check while the main part of the Cameronians entrenched positions about 700 yards to the rear. This took place on the eastern side of the village of La Boutillerie. During this time the enemy, who were only 50 yards to the front of the platoon, attacked them in force which resulted in Cameronians falling back, but not before the trench-digging to the rear was completed. During the fighting L. Cpl. Lawton had been wounded, about a hundred yards to the right of May who quickly ran across the firing line through a hail of bullets. L. Cpl. James McCall and Pte. James Bell went with May to assist. May removed Lawton’s equipment and dragged him to his feet and, assisted by McCall, the two men tried to carry Lawton back to safety, but the wounded man was shot dead and McCall knocked unconscious. May then flattened himself on the ground determined to fight to the last. At that moment he saw his platoon commander Lt. Graham fall to the ground with a bullet in his leg. May called to Bell to follow and ran over to their officer; the two men carried him step by step, zig-zagging as they stumbled on. When they had covered about 300 yards they reached a ditch where Bell was shot in the hand and foot but they managed eventually to reach safety. May was exhausted but struggled to drag Lt. Graham a little nearer safety when Cpl. Taylor came to his assistance. Lt. Graham who had lost a lot of blood by this time ordered the two men to return to their lines but they disobeyed him. Cpl. Taylor lifted Lt. Graham onto his shoulders but was then shot dead. May, by some supreme effort, then dragged the wounded officer to the British trenches and safety. Pte. May’s heroism and utter disregard for the safety of his own life was in the true tradition of the holders of the VC. On 2 November 1914, eleven days after May won his VC, he was wounded by shrapnel during the attacks on the town of Ypres. He was attended to at a base hospital before being invalided back to England, and he was home with his family in Glasgow in time for Christmas. In mid-January 1915 he departed once more for France. His VC was gazetted four months later on 19 April 1915.

  Henry May was the son of Mr William May and his wife Margaret. He was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow on 29 July 1885. He went to school at Dalmarnock Public School in Glasgow and enlisted in the army on 29 August 1902 at the age of seventeen, joining the 1st Scottish Rifles.

  As a reservist he joined the colours at the outbreak of war. After his VC was gazetted, he was told that he was entitled to return home for a short respite. He arrived at Glasgow Central station at 19.45 hours on Saturday 31 July 1915 and was met by a representative of the Lord Provost and by friends and former colleagues from Forrest Frew’s mill. After leaving the train he was briefly carried shoulder high by the enthusiastic crowd. On 4 August, May was invited to a civil reception and in replying to a toast he said, ‘I feel proud to be present. I only did what any other soldier would have done. Plenty of men have equalled what I did.’ A week later he addressed a group of Clyde munition workers during a dinner break, telling them ‘Stick to your work for the sake of the boys in the trenches.’

  On 12 August, he travelled to London to receive his VC from the King. After the ceremony he was mobbed yet again by an eager crowd who was keen to shake him by the hand together with two other VC winners, Pte. Mariner and Cpl. Tombs. ‘Good old May!’ ‘Good old Mariner!’ ‘Good old Tombs!’ shouted the crowd. ‘Come on, shake hands, old sports!’ The three men were glad to make their escape.

  May was discharged from the army on 28 August 1915 when his regular engagement of thirteen years expired. He re-joined on 27 October 1917, was posted to the ASC (MT) and was discharged on 3 March 1918 having been appointed to a commission with the Motor Transport Corps. He lastly served as a temporary lieutenant in Archangel, no
rth Russia, in 1919 and returned home sick from there on 17 October 1919, entering the City Hospital in Edinburgh. By 30 October he was fit again and resigned his commission on 15 November. After leaving the army he became a reservist and was also a tenter with Forrest Frew & Company, muslin manufacturers close to Rutherglen Bridge, Bridgeton, Glasgow. He later joined a hosiery firm, the Glasgow Manufacturing Company, in which he became a partner.

  May’s former platoon commander Lt. D.A.H. Graham, whose life he saved, later became Maj. General Graham DSO and MC and eventually colonel of the regiment. May had been the first man from the Cameronians to earn a VC for thirty-five years.

  He was taken ill at his home and died in the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, on 26 July 1941, leaving his wife Christina and four children. She didn’t qualify for a widow’s pension as her husband hadn’t held a commission in the regular army.

  His home address was No. 903 Cumbernauld Road, Riddrie, Glasgow, which still exists. His funeral took place at Riddrie Park Cemetery, Glasgow, and was the largest seen in the East End for a long time. It was attended by four holders of the VC: Messrs John McAulay, R. Downie, D.R. Lauder and W. Ritchie. The commanding officer of the Cameronians, Col. C.B. Vandaleur also attended. May’s grave is in section B, lair 146, and the original headstone didn’t include his name but only those of his children. It was later vandalised and a new stone erected, which was unveiled on 12 September 2006 in the presence of members of his family and of his former regiment. His VC had been sold twelve years earlier at auction on 7 June 1994 by Wallis & Wallis for £18,250 and together with his medals it is on display at the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Museum, Hamilton.

  W. KENNY

  Near Ypres, Belgium, 23 October

  The day after Pte. May gained his Victoria Cross close to the village of La Boutillerie an Irishman, Drummer William Kenny, gained his further to the north between Kruiseecke and Zandvoorde. He was a member of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders of the 20th Brigade of the 7th Division. The brigade line was to the south-east of the Menin road and the village of Gheluvelt, and from right to left were the 2nd Borders, 2nd Gordons and 2nd Scots Guards; on their left was the 22nd Brigade also of the 7th Division. The linking battalion between the two brigades was the 1st Grenadier Guards also of the 20th Brigade. The position held by the Guards was a sort of salient and was to become a major objective for the enemy to capture.

  The First Battle of Ypres began on 19 October when the German Army was desperate to bring about the fall of the town and was pressing in on it from all sides. In this area of the battlefield the Germans were employing many volunteer men in their ranks from the German middle classes, and their sheer numbers as well as their ardour was to be considerably underestimated by the British and French Armies. On 21 October the German attack by the XXVII Reserve Corps fell on the 21st and 22nd Brigades of the 7th Division rather than the 20th Brigade, with continuous assaults and shelling. The enemy certainly dug themselves in close to the positions of the 20th Brigade but never seemingly pressed an attack home.

  On the south side of the Kruiseecke salient the 2nd Gordon Highlanders only had to deal with small or minor attacks and occasionally they were subjected to shell fire and accurate sniping. It was against this background that Drummer Kenny, who was not much more than 5ft 3 in height set about rescuing no fewer than five wounded men under very heavy fire on the 23rd. He was awarded the VC for his heroism and also for saving some machine guns and conveying urgent messages over fire-swept ground. The position of the 20th Brigade at the salient was given very close support by F Battery and 12th Battery who deterred the enemy from attacking at this point.

  Kenny’s VC was gazetted on 18 February 1915 and he was presented with the decoration by the King at Glasgow Green on 18 May.

  William Kenny was born on 24 August 1880 in Drogheda, County Louth, although some accounts say he was born in Malta. In May 1915, a few days after being presented with his VC, he was given the Freedom of Drogheda. Later still he also received a watch at the Mansion House in the City of London.

  He was discharged with the rank of drum major in 1919 and joined the Corps of Commissionaires, with whom he billeted. Several pictures exist of him in his uniform wearing his medals along with a full and pointed moustache, every inch an ex-military man. Kenny seems to have been the archetypal or stage Irishman. He became everybody’s friend and a great favourite with his firm’s customers, especially in Bond Street in the West End of London where he worked for some time – he was always chatting with people as they went in and out of the shops, hotels or car showrooms.

  An article in the Daily Express described him well: ‘He once filled Bond Street with his presence. Now he presides over the entrance to a house of motor-cars in Berkeley Square.’ ‘As Irish as ever they were bred,’ he enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders, as a drummer in the nineties (and served in South Africa between 1899 and 1901). ‘I’m a County Meath man … I’m a Drogheda man.’

  In the same article Kenny tells of how he was once ‘buried’ as a result of a mix up with identity discs. His friend, Sgt. Bunn said that after Kenny had won his VC he had become too valuable a piece to be let near the front line again, but he slipped through once or twice – with some rum inside him. In the same article Kenny himself talks of being close to the Hindenburg Line in 1917.

  He also served on the Somme in 1916 and there is a famous picture of him proudly marching at the front of his regimental drums and pipes. Behind him can be seen the figure of Capt. (later Col.) Turnbull, Distinguished Service Order (DSO), riding a grey horse. The Gordons had recently been involved in the fighting at Ginchy and were probably on their way back to billets at Treux on 7 or 8 September 1916. He was one of the VC Honour Guard for the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920. In the early 1930s Kenny had a job at Warnes Hotel on the seafront in Worthing.

  Kenny lived in the Corps Barracks in London until early 1936 when he was taken ill and died in Charing Cross Hospital on 10 January, shortly before the King died. Records show that he was buried and commemorated in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, where on 20 March 1999 his grave was marked with a new headstone supplied by the Corps of Commissionaires. The grave reference is 199356 and Kenny is one of nine holders of the VC buried in the cemetery. His name is also listed on the Drogheda War Memorial.

  His VC and medals were acquired by the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen and include the Queen’s SA Medal with 2 Bars, the King’s SA Medal with Bars, the 1914 Star, BWM and the Cross of St George, 2nd Class (Russia).

  J. LEACH AND J. HOGAN

  Near Festubert, France, 29 October

  2nd Lt. Leach

  Sgt. J. Hogan

  By 23 October the British II Corps had crossed the Béthune-La Bassée Canal and had fought their way northwards. The 5th Division which included the 14th Brigade took up positions on the right, while the 3rd Division was to the north. The Corps was planning to reach the Lille-La Bassée road with the assistance of the French 10th Army. They were unaware that the Germans were in their turn planning to overwhelm the Allied positions.

  The 2nd Manchester Regiment of the 14th Brigade were instructed to establish a new position as rearguard to the 13th Brigade and to take up a line at La Quinque Rue, near Festubert, to the north of the La Bassée Canal and west of the industrial town of La Bassée itself. They were to spend the next few days improving their defensive positions and in maintaining them, despite heavy shelling and fighting with the inevitable casualties. During this time their sister battalion, the 1st Manchesters, came into the line to their left, the first time that the two units had met since 1882.

  On the 27th the village of Neuve Chapelle to the north-east had been captured by the Germans but lost the next day. The Germans fought hard to retrieve the situation and tried to weaken the British position by shelling the junction of the 13th and 14th Brigades of the 5th Division, to the north-east of Festubert. On the 29th there was also very heavy fighting in the region of La Bassée.

 
It was in the subsequent fighting in the Festubert area that two deeds of great heroism occurred. On the 29th the 2nd Manchesters’ trenches were heavily shelled from first light and then charged by the Germans, under the cover of a smoke screen. They attacked mainly at the centre and the right of the position, and captured one of A Company’s forward trenches, but the remainder held their own. The Manchesters fought with great determination and courage, and two officers, 2nd Lt. C.L. Bentley and Lt. J.A.L. Reade, the acting adjutant, were killed in trying to stem the German thrust towards the supporting trench. As it was they were only stopped 10 yards from it. Two attempts were made to retake the forward trench but these failed. At 14.00 hours 2nd Lt. Leach accompanied by Sgt. J. Hogan and ten volunteers from A Company recaptured the forward trench and in so doing took six wounded and fourteen unwounded prisoners. The small party of brave attackers went forward along the communication trench, pushing the Germans back in front of them, and continued fighting from traverse to traverse. The casualties on the British side during the day included the two officers already mentioned and twenty other ranks. In addition nineteen men were wounded and eight men were missing. Capt. R.N. Hardcastle, DSO, was taken to hospital after his eye had been damaged by earth thrown up by a bullet.

  On the 30th the Festubert area was again subjected to a forceful artillery attack but the British held their ground. The 2nd Manchesters were relieved at 02.00 hours by the Gurkhas, who had recently arrived in France with the Indian Corps. The 2nd Manchesters retired to Rue De L’Epinette and then withdrew to billets in La Couture. On the 31st they moved as divisional reserve to Le Touret.