VCs of the First World War 1914

by Gerald Gliddon

  Leach and Hogan had risked their lives in the action to regain their former positions; the twenty-two-year-old subaltern and the more experienced non-commissioned officer (NCO) must have made an excellent team. After the mauling that the 2nd Manchesters had received at Le Cateau and La Bassée, Leach had been given command of a company rather than a platoon.

  Some time later 2nd Lt. Leach told the story to the Press in more detail. His advanced trench had room for about thirty-five men and was about 150 yards in front of the main trench which was 120 yards from the enemy. Leach was having his breakfast when he was warned that the Germans were attacking. He saw 250 men with fixed bayonets moving in on his position – they were running and making a sort of ‘wailing noise’. Leach reported that they managed to shoot down about 150 of the enemy and the remaining 100 jumped into his advanced trench killing about 12 of his company. The Germans then pushed their way down the communication trench and into the main trench. Initially the enemy took over three out of four traverses, and eventually the fourth.

  On learning that the 2nd Manchesters’ positions were to be taken over by the Gurkhas later that day, Leach thought that it would be rather bad on his part to hand over his company trench to them. At 14.00 hours, therefore, he called for volunteers and Hogan and ten men agreed to join him. Leach, armed with his officer’s pistol, had the idea of forcing the enemy back to their own trenches and shooting them as they retreated. In doing this he succeeded in releasing some of his own men who had been captured earlier in the day. They captured about fourteen men and twenty wounded along with an officer. 2nd Lt. Leach knew that his name had been mentioned in despatches, but the award of the VC came as a surprise to him. It was gazetted on 22 December 1914 together with Sgt. Hogan’s. Leach was presented with his VC by the King at Buckingham Palace on 13 February 1915 and Hogan on 20 February.

  James Leach was born in Bowerham Barracks, Lancaster, on 27 July 1892, being the son of a colour-sergeant of the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment and his wife Amelia Summerfield. James was one of five children who were all born in Lancaster and lived in the barracks. Between 1897 and 1901 he attended the Bowerham Council School until the family moved to Manchester in July 1901 when he attended Moston Lane Municipal School for six years until 1907 when he would have been about fifteen years of age. The family then moved again, this time to Leicester.

  Leach worked for a short period as an apprentice chemist but in August 1910 joined the Army Reserve and became a member of the 3rd (Special Reserve) Btn. Northamptonshire Regiment, having signed a six year agreement. In December, and after obtaining appropriate Class Certificates of Education, he enlisted in the regular army on a twelve year engagement. In January 1911 he joined the 1st Northamptonshire Regiment and two months later changed to the 1st Battalion. By June 1914 he had been promoted to full corporal. When war was declared two months later Leach was in camp in Aldershot and his battalion was part of 2nd Bde of the 1st Div and landed at Le Havre on 13 August. The battalion took part in the Battle of the Aisne in September 1914 and Leach was soon promoted to sergeant and mentioned in Despatches. He was then promptly commissioned for services in the field and joined the 2nd Manchester Regiment in early October.

  Sadly he had been very badly concussed during his VC action of 29 October and was medically discharged in December awaiting a medical board. By now he had been made a full lieutenant and a member of the 3rd Reserve Manchesters. During this period he returned to Mostyn where the pupils of his old school welcomed him as a local hero and were given a half-day holiday. This school visit was followed by a recruitment drive in the City of Manchester. The next day Leach travelled to London in order to receive his VC decoration from the King at Buckingham Palace, and back in Manchester he addressed a public meeting on the 16th.

  It would appear from the records that Leach was not really fit for general service but in April 1915 returned to France and Belgium anyway with the 2nd Manchesters, initially serving in the Ypres Salient.

  Still unfit, he returned to England later in the month and in August was told to report to the Army School of Signalling at Caius College, Cambridge. In December, when still in Cambridge, he married Gladys Digby but the marriage was cut short as she died four months later. Before her death, however, Leach had been presented with an illuminated address by the people of Lancaster, his home town.

  On 1 January 1917 Leach was promoted to temporary captain and in March, after being posted to Cleethorpes, he married a second time, this time to Josephine Pansy Butt, daughter of a trawler owner. The service took place in the parish church in Old Clee, near Grimsby. A few weeks later Leach was back in France again, and when still with the 2nd Manchesters he was sent on a Lewis gun course soon after he arrived, returning to his battalion in June. However, he was still unfit for service and his mental state became very poor, and as a consequence he was sent to the military hospital for nervous cases in Craiglockhart, Edinburgh. In February 1918 he was placed on half pay and for a few months he was adjutant of the South West London Cadet Battalion. In July he was once more before a medical board and was discharged from the army in August 1918. He had served his eight years of contracted active service.

  The Leaches’ first son, James, was born in Streatham in June 1918. A couple of years later, on 6 January 1921, during the time of ‘the Troubles’ in Ireland, Leach joined a ‘Special Emergency Gendarmerie’, a branch of the Royal Irish Constabulary, a body which was made up from unemployed men who had served in the British Army during the war in County Cork. The men were well paid and known as cadets. It was to prove dangerous work, and the cadets were neither really policemen nor soldiers and were not at all suited for the task of keeping order. In effect, they were part of the notorious and deeply unpopular ‘Black and Tans’. Meanwhile Leach’s family home was in a police barracks for reasons of safety.

  After the signing of the Peace Treaty in December 1921, the Leach family returned to England and took up residence in Grimsby where Leach was employed carrying out clerical duties for his father-in-law Walter Butt. At the same time he studied to become a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries. In May 1925 a second son, Donald, was born to the Leach family in Grimsby.

  Leach never got on with his father-in-law, and in 1927 the family upped sticks from Grimsby and moved to London where Leach took up employment with the Bank of England. In 1928 a daughter, Josephine, was born, but Leach was to lose his bank job during the depression of 1930–31. He then managed to obtain a position as an accountant with an export company in the South Pacific, while Walter Butt paid to house his daughter and the Leach children in a house in Chiswick. Leach returned to London in 1934 and took a position with the stockbrokers, Foster & Brathwaite.

  In 1936 Walter Butt died and left money in trust to his daughter and grandchildren. James now decided to cease work and instead he read for the Bar. The Leach marriage foundered in 1937 and the couple divorced in 1938 after Leach had been named as a co-respondent in a divorce action and ordered to pay £500 in costs. At that time the social stigma associated with divorce was quite considerable and it caused much pain and ill-feeling in his family.

  Leach continued to work as a chartered secretary and also became a councillor in Hammersmith. From 1939 until 1943 he worked for the Ministry of Aircraft Production before moving on to the Osram lighting company in Hammersmith. When working at this factory he met and married Mabel Folland, his third wife. At the same time he had joined the Roehampton Home Guard and his final job was with the Danish Bacon Company in the City of London.

  He attended at least three VC reunions before the VC Centenary Review of 1956, including the special dinner, organised in the end of June by the Manchester Regiment for their still surviving VC holders. Leach was one of the guest speakers chosen to reply to the official speeches. On 23 April 1958 he also attended the bicentenary of the Manchester Regiment at Warley Barracks in Brentwood, Essex, where he was introduced to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Four months later he die
d on 15 August at his home at No. 4 The Lodge, Richmond Way, Shepherd’s Bush, leaving a widow and six children. His funeral was at St Matthew’s church, West Kensington, and he was later cremated and his ashes scattered. His medals are not publicly held.

  John Hogan was born at 134 Heyside, Royton, Oldham, Lancashire (the house no longer exists) on 8 April 1884. He was the son of Sarah Hogan whose name he took. She was employed as a cotton-speed tenter. After the South African war was over Hogan joined the 2nd Manchesters in 1903 and served in South Africa, India and the United Kingdom, for seven years. He left the army as a reservist with the rank of corporal. He returned home to Oldham where he became a postman in Heyside. He lodged with a Mr J. Naseby at 36 New Radcliffe Street for some time and also with relatives in Heyside. He was not a big man in stature and was known by his friends as a sociable, jolly and sensible young man. Early in August 1914 he became engaged to a woman who worked in a local hotel in Oldham. At the outbreak of war he rejoined the army and his rank was made up to that of sergeant. In the first five months of the war he sent back most of his pay along with many letters and war souvenirs to his fiancée.

  He was an experienced soldier and survived the Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat. After his VC action with 2nd Lt. Leach near Festubert on 29 October he was wounded on 14 December 1914, and was sent to hospital. He had been hit in the face by a piece of shrapnel shell and at one time was in danger of losing the sight of one eye. He was sent home and treated at the military hospital in High Street, Manchester, before recuperating at Macclesfield Infirmary. He was back in Oldham just in time for Christmas 1914 and was cheered by an enthusiastic crowd who carried him shoulder high.

  On 2 January 1915 he married his fiancée, a widow from Miner Street named Mrs Margaret Taylor. The marriage ceremony took place at St Mary’s Roman Catholic church, Oldham. Hogan, who was still suffering from his head wounds, was on furlough until 11 January.

  After the war Hogan was unemployed for long periods of time. A young man called Mike Lally met him after the war and in an interview with Frank Hearon in the 1980s told the following story:

  The next time I saw him [Hogan] was when I was walking down to my mother’s from Piccadilly Station. I saw this man standing in the street with a tray of matches and a notice reading ‘No Pension–Ex-serviceman’. I put two bob in his tray, then I looked and realized who it was. ‘Excuse me, is your name Hogan?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes. Do you know me?’

  I said, ‘I was in reserve to you and Mr Leach when you got your VC.’

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Well,’ I said, ‘Do you remember taking my bloody money before you got your VC? You had 100 francs off me on my twentieth birthday and spent it in the estaminet.’

  ‘Lally,’ he said. ‘Bloody hell!’

  Hogan had won the young soldier’s recent pay in some sort of bet. A Press photograph exists of Hogan wearing his cloth cap and medals trying to sell boxes of matches for a living, an occupation that he followed for three years. In 1936 the Daily Express heard of Hogan’s financial difficulties and published an article which was seen by a music-hall star named Benny Ross. Ross gave Hogan a job as his valet and kitted him out in new clothes. This job, however, did not last very long and when the Second World War began in 1939 Hogan began work in a munitions factory. At the time he was living at No. 12 Alderson Street near the site of the Technical College in Oldham. His post-war life was tragic, but his fate was shared by many ex-servicemen who were unemployed.

  Hogan died of cancer on 6 October 1943 at the Oldham & District hospital, Westwood Park Hospital, aged fifty-nine. It is not known what happened to his wife but her name is not listed among the mourners at his funeral on 12 October. The funeral took place at Chadderton Cemetery with a bearer party from the Pioneer Corps and a detachment of soldiers from his former regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, under the command of Sgt. Stridgeon, DCM. The coffin was placed on a gun carriage with the Union Jack and a steel helmet. It was a Roman Catholic service and the ‘Last Post’ was played at the graveside. The mayor and the chief constable were among the mourners. Hogan’s grave number is D9–63 and is difficult to find as his name is not listed on it. It has sunk down over the years and bears the following inscription: ‘In Loving Memory of Robert Garlick Taylor. Died February 9th 1913 aged 39 Years. Also Henry, son of the above, died October 21st 1914 aged 19 Years.’ The grave plot was purchased by Mrs Margaret Taylor in 1913 before she married John Hogan. The grave also contains the remains of two Taylor children aged ten and three respectively. It seems likely that when Hogan married Mrs Taylor she was in her late forties while he would have been about thirty years old. In recent years the grave has sometimes become overgrown and neglected. However, at the time of writing there is a move afoot to erect a more appropriate memorial to Hogan’s memory on the grave site. Enquiries are being made in order to try and contact any members of the Taylor family. It is proposed that Mr Norman Stoller, a local businessman, pays for the cost of a new stone and that the Manchester Regiment will supervise the lettering and the setting up of the new memorial.

  The family address at the time of Hogan’s funeral is given in the cemetery records at No. 55 Frank Hill Street. This was probably in Franklin Street but there is no trace of the house still existing.

  After he died in hospital his family accused the hospital authorities of negligence and allowing his medals to be stolen. The truth of the matter was that Hogan had already sold them. He had not wished to tell his family about this. He had often pawned his medals until his pension came through. Hogan’s family believed that the medals had been stolen and reported their suspicions to the local police. However, in the 1970s the medals turned up in a London dealer’s catalogue with a reserve price of £10,000. The family, not unnaturally, asked for them back, thinking that they still legally belonged to them and they took out a court injunction to prevent the sale. However, Messrs Spink and Sons, the dealers, were able to produce documentation that proved Hogan had indeed sold the medals to a Mr Stanley Oldfield of Blackpool, a medal collector, in March 1942 for a price in the region of £60. In 1960 the medals were sold once more, for £15, and in the early 1970s for £785. Messrs Spinks sold them initially for about £6,000.

  When the medals were offered for sale a second time by Spinks, Mr Norman Stoller, managing director of the Oldham-based Seton group, became interested in buying them back for the town. Mr Stoller negotiated a discount with the dealer and paid £7,250 with the local council contributing £2,500 towards the medals.

  In October 1983, forty years after Hogan’s death, The Daily Telegraph gave the following report of a parade in Oldham: ‘The 5/8 King’s Regiment marches with fixed bayonets, colours flying and bands playing through Oldham today (22 October), bearing a VC won in 1914 by Sgt. John Hogan.’

  One of those who attended the presentation was the now-elderly Mike Lally, Hogan’s former colleague.

  The medals were presented to the mayor by the Regimental Colonel Sir Geoffrey Errington and were then deposited alongside regimental colours and silver in the Oldham Civic Centre. Sadly, this parade in Sgt. Hogan’s honour came rather too late for him. It does not appear from the regimental archives that his regiment took much interest in his plight.

  Helen Hogan, John Hogan’s daughter-in-law, told the local press about her reaction to the return of the medals:

  It’s a lovely gesture and a happy ending to a very sad story. But I am a little upset that the medal won’t be staying in our family, although I realize it is not a thing to be hidden away … I had virtually given up any hope of finding the medals. They are part of the history of Oldham and finding them after forty years means a great deal to my family.

  Mrs Helen Hogan in a gesture of appreciation presented a clock to Norman Stoller in gratitude for all that he had done in her father-in-law’s memory. Messrs Spinks made a special display case for the medals. By the autumn of 1996 funding had been raised for a proper headsto
ne for Hogan’s grave, which was supplied by the CWGC.

  J.A.O. BROOKE

  Near Gheluvelt, Belgium, 29 October

  On 29 October 1914, six days after Drummer Kenny won his Victoria Cross in the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, another man from the same battalion, Lt. J.A.O. Brooke won a second such medal for his regiment. Since the 23rd the fight for the possession of Ypres had continued and there was also heavy fighting around La Bassée and Arras. Despite considerable German pressure Gheluvelt, the gateway to Ypres, had not fallen. It will be recalled that the 2nd Gordon Highlanders along with other battalions of the 20th Brigade (7th Div.) were occupying positions between Kruiseecke and Zandvoorde. The left of the brigade was on the Menin road about a thousand yards to the east of Gheluvelt.

  It had been a quiet day on the divisional front on 27 October and the 20th Brigade moved back a couple of miles behind the firing line. Later there was a warning that the Germans might attack the Division on the 28th so the 20th Brigade was brought up again, with the 1st Grenadier Guards taking up positions immediately south of the Menin road with the 2nd Gordon Highlanders to their right. At about 15.30 hours a message came from General Headquarters to the Division to the effect that the German XXVIIth Reserve Corps had been ordered to capture the crossroads south of Gheluvelt. At 16.30 hours the 20th Brigade was ordered to send two battalions to the crossroads by 18.45 hours. Accordingly the 1st Grenadier Guards and the 2nd Gordon Highlanders were ordered up to a position stretching from the crossroads to the track running south-west from Gheluvelt. At night, the 2nd Scots Guards and the 2nd Border Regiment were to support them at Gheluvelt.