VCs of the First World War 1914

by Gerald Gliddon

  In 1912 when Montenegro declared war on Turkey Leake was in England and was able to apply for a position with the British Red Cross which had been formed for service with the Montenegrin Army. He was presented with the Order of Montenegrin Red Cross by Nicholas, King of Montenegro.

  On 7 March 1915 Martin-Leake’s VC was in India and it had to be returned in order to put a clasp on it prior to him leaving for the Balkans. In November 1915 Leake was promoted to major and sent to the Balkans with the ‘Adriatic Mission’, which arrived too late to be of much use and had to flee with the Serbian forces to Corfu and Italy before returning to England on 6 March 1916. He returned to the Western Front on 20 March to 30th Casualty Clearing Station. A year later he was made up to lieutenant colonel and given command of No. 46 Field Ambulance and a casualty clearing station between March 1917 and June 1918.

  Only three men have won the VC twice and Leake was the first. Capt. Noel Chavasse, another doctor was the second, and the third was Charles H. Upham, a New Zealander, in the Second World War. Coincidentally, Leake had treated Noel Chavasse at Brandhoek during the early part of the Battle of Passchendaele in August 1917. Leake took charge of 42nd Casualty Clearing Station, having left the 46th, from June to September 1918.

  After the war Leake returned to his job as medical officer with the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in Calcutta and became a keen big game hunter, sending skins home to Hertfordshire. In 1930 he married a widow, Winifred Frances, who sadly died two years later of a tropical disease. There were no children of the marriage.

  In 1937 Leake resigned from his job with the Indian Railway and returned to England after a shooting trip in East Africa. He took up residence at ‘Marshalls’ once more, with various members of his family.

  In the Second World War Leake commanded a mobile Air Raid Precaution (ARP) unit at Puckeridge near his home which won many prizes for efficiency. In his retirement he occupied himself by managing the Hertfordshire estate and gardens at ‘Marshalls’. He also wrote and illustrated a book on hunting in India. He was president of the local branch of the British Legion for over twenty years; his brother, William, had previously been an officer on the committee. After Leake died of cancer at home on 22 June 1953 there were many obituaries published about his remarkable career and achievements but it was left to a friend, Dr Aubrey Barker, to write a particularly touching appreciation:

  The family were typical of the best Victorian traditions and they were all imbued with a strong love of their country. He had many hobbies: a keen motorist, he even rode a motor-bicycle a year before his death, and rather resented the insurance company requiring a medical certificate. At one time he held a pilot’s licence and flew his own plane. He spent much of his later years in the garden and was proud of his vegetables. One of the memories I have is of Arthur in the kitchen, wearing a surgical coat, cooking herrings, with his cheeks all floured and a cigarette in his mouth. He was not interested in himself; his friends and neighbours came easily first. He was a great man, a simple man, and a character to admire and love.

  At Leake’s funeral which took place at High Cross church, Ware, the director-general of the Army Medical Services attended, along with representatives of the various organizations that Leake had been associated with. His body was cremated at the Enfield Crematorium, Middlesex, and his ashes placed in the family grave. Seven members of his family are buried in the same grave and the eighth, who died in a ballooning accident, is buried in Dorset. In his will Leake left £110,320 (duty paid £54,421) and directed that his medals should be presented to the Royal Army Medical Corps. On 26 June 1955 this was carried out by his cousin, Dr H. Martin-Leake at a special service.

  On 13 June 1986, thirty-three years after his death, a brass plaque commemorating Leake was unveiled in the parish church of St John the Evangelist, High Cross. Those who attended the service of dedication included the Bishop of St Albans and the surgeon general of the RAMC along with two classes from the local High School. Leake’s medals were on display at the service.

  In 1989 the neglected appearance of the Leake family grave caused concern locally. Subsequently the grave was cleaned and tidied up and a surrounding paving laid down at the expense of the RAMC. In 2002 a service was held at his graveside.

  KHUDADAD KHAN

  Hollebeke, Belgium, 31 October

  While the First Battle of Ypres was being fought, the Indian Divisions were involved in fighting to the south, at La Bassée and at Messines. On 31 October and 23/24 November two Indians gained their country’s first Victoria Crosses, which were gazetted on 7 December. Conditions for the Indians could not have been much worse with continuous wet, low temperatures and soggy ground. However, they distinguished themselves despite these.

  Sepoy Khudadad Khan of the 129th Duke of Connaught’s Own Baluchis Regiment won the award on 31 October at Hollebeke. The Baluchis were part of the Ferozepore Brigade of the Lahore Division. Other units in this brigade were the 1st Connaught Rangers, 9th Bhopal Infantry, and 57th Wilde’s Rifles, Frontier Force.

  The Indians had arrived in the line on 23 October and the Ferozepore Brigade was initially supported by the Cavalry Corps and two of its sister units. Some of them had been brought up by bus. During the Battle of Messines and early in the morning of the 23rd the Baluchis relieved the 3rd Cavalry Brigade. The positions were also close to the Ypres–Comines railway and parallel to the Comines Canal, close to the village of Hollebeke to the north-east of Messines. Several ineffectual German attacks took place and the enemy made very little progress as the British positions were very strong in this sector. On the 26th the 2nd Cavalry Division attacked from the Hollebeke Château on the north of the railway line, and down the canal in a south-easterly direction towards the village of Houthem. The 4th Hussars were in the lead with the Baluchis in support who were, at one time, in front of the Hussars. However, the new trench lines were inferior to the former ones, which had been worked on for several days.

  The Salient, 31 October

  While the Battle of Gheluvelt was being fought at the end of October the British line to the south-west was becoming too thinly spread in the line between Ploegsteert Wood and the Douve stream to Armentières. The troops holding it came from three cavalry divisions supported by two Indian battalions, the 57th Rifles and the Baluchis. They were comparatively short of ammunition and did not have a great deal of artillery support. The cavalry was forced to fall back from Hollebeke and the enemy closed round the château. In the Ferozepore Brigade one of the companies of the 57th Rifles lost 80 out of 140 men before escaping and most of one company of the Baluchis was cut off.

  In the attack on the line from Wytschaete to the Comines Canal on 31 October the 2nd Cavalry Division with about 3,250 troops was outnumbered by the enemy by about five to one. Some 600 of these 3,250 men were contributed by the Baluchis.

  In a report by Col. W.M. Southey, the Commanding Officer of the 129th Baluchi Regiment he wrote as follows: ‘We formed up about 3 a.m. and advanced on the left of the farm. We killed about three and wounded three and the remainder who had not bolted, surrendered, fourteen in number.’ Each battalion had two Maxim guns and with the team of one gun from the Baluchis were three men who continued to work until their gun was blown to bits by a shell. They only retired when ordered to do so by Capt. R.F. Dill who was their commander. He was himself wounded in the head and had to be carried back to the rear. He was created a Companion of the DSO for his courage on that day.

  The men who worked the remaining gun, causing considerable havoc among the ranks of the enemy, were Havildar Ghulam Mahomed, Sepoy Lal Sher, Sepoy Said Ahmad, Sepoy Kassib and Sepoy Afsar Khan. Sadly, they were all killed. Khudadad Khan, who was wounded, continued to work the gun after the five men had been knocked out. All the men manning the second gun received posthumous awards. The wounded Khudadad managed to rejoin his company but not before rendering his gun useless.

  Some 164 men of the Baluchis were killed or wounded and sixty-four were missing, mostly killed.
They also lost six British officers, three killed and three wounded; three Indian officers were also killed and two wounded. Gen. Sir O’Moore Creagh, VC, was their colonel.

  Khudadad’s VC was gazetted on 7 December 1914 but he was too unwell to attend the investiture. At the time he was recovering at the Indian Convalescent Hospital in New Milton, Hampshire. He finally received his decoration from the King at Buckingham Palace on 26 January 1915.

  Khudadad Khan (4050) was a Punjabi Mussulman and was born in Dabb village, Chakwal in the Jhelum district of the Punjab, on 26 October 1888. In August 1914 his regiment, which bore many battle honours and was one of the few Indian regiments composed entirely of Mohammedans, was mobilized. When it received orders it was stationed at Ferozepore in the Punjab, apart from 200 men who were on guard duty at Simla. The Baluchis, with the 57th Rifles, was one of the first two Indian units to come into action in the First World War.

  In 1956 Khudadad attended the VC Centenary celebrations in London where he was photographed standing proudly among his colleagues. He died at Chak No. 25, Rukhan Tehsil Village, Phalia District, Mandi, Bahu-ud-Din in Pakistan on 8 March 1971 at the age of eighty-two and was buried in Rukhan Village Cemetery, near Chakwal. His VC and medals are not publicly held. There is a statue of him in Rawapindi, Pakistan, in the entrance to the Army Museum and there is also a silver statue in his memory at Quetta Staff College. Gunner Drain is the other VC who has a statue in his memory.

  S.J. BENT

  Near Gheer, Belgium, 1/2 November

  No. 8581 Drummer Bent arrived in France with his battalion, the 1st East Lancashire Regiment, eighteen days after the First World War began. The battalion was part of the 11th Brigade of the 4th Division and it took part as a reserve unit at Mons and in the fighting at Le Cateau on 26 August. Later it was involved in the retreat towards Paris and the retreat of the German Army at the Marne, and subsequently in the Battle of the Aisne.

  At the end of September, the French Army took over the Aisne front completely and the British units left by train for Flanders. Their next fighting engagement was the First Battle of Ypres which lasted from 19 October to 22 November. It was during this battle that Drummer Bent won his Victoria Cross.

  On the eastern edge of Ploegsteert Wood was the small village of Le Gheer, in which there was a convent. On 21 October the village was captured by the Germans and they took up positions to the west of it facing Ploegsteert. The 11th Brigade re-took the village and the position was furiously fought for during the next few days, with ammunition running short. It was during this period that Bent brought ammunition up to the trenches to this advanced position. The trenches gave very little cover or protection to the men using them as they were merely scraped out of the ground. Bent, in carrying out this work, was in constant danger of being hit by bullets or shellfire.

  On the 27th the village was the centre of renewed attacks by the enemy on the seven mile line between Messines and Armentières. The brigade was heavily shelled but managed to repel the German infantry attack. The night of 1/2 November was a crisis time for the East Lancashires and at one point word was passed down the line to withdraw.

  Drummer Bent was interviewed for The Suffolk Chronicle and Mercury dated 18 December 1914 and said of the incident:

  We were as usual taking our hourly turns alternately watching for the enemy, and I had snuggled down into my hole. We had no officer in our trench and my platoon leader had gone to visit a post, when someone passed the word down the line the battalion was to retire. This was being done when I woke up. I started to follow them, but remembered a French trumpet which I had found, and carried with me for some long time. I did not want to lose it and went back for it, chancing a bullet. When I got into the trench I saw someone just coming round the corner. Thinking it was a German, I waited for him till he crawled up to me, and then poked my rifle into him and asked him who he was. It was Sgt. Waller, who told me that it was a wrong order. I at once jumped out of the trench and ordered the men back. Whilst doing this an officer came up, and after I had told him what had happened he told me to get the men back, whilst he went after some others. We all got back to the trench safely and waited. In the early morning the Germans evidently thought we had left the trenches, for after a bombardment they attacked. The Germans came on, doing a sort of goose step. Our officers kept our fire back, and in the meantime Lt. Dyer brought up a machine gun. When the Germans were about 400 yards off, the order was given to fire, and the Germans went down in hundreds, very few getting safely back to their own trenches.

  On the following morning, after we had had breakfast, Private McNulty went out of the trench, and on returning was hit in the pit of the stomach. He fell, and the Germans were trying to hit him again; you could see the earth flying up all around him. I said, ‘Why doesn’t someone go and help him?’ and got the reply, ‘Why not go yourself?’ I went, and to make it difficult for the Germans to hit me I zig-zagged to him. They did not snipe at me whilst I was advancing, but as soon as I got hold of McNulty’s shoulder something seemed to take my feet from under me, and I slipped under McNulty. This took place close to the walls of a ruined convent, and just as I fell several bullets struck the wall, sending a piece of plaster against my left eye. I thought I was wounded, and started to rub the blood away, as I thought, but fortunately the skin was only grazed. I felt it was time to get out of it, and knowing it was impossible to stand up, I hooked my feet under McNulty’s arms, and using my elbows I managed to drag myself and him back to the trenches about twenty-five yards away. When I got him there safely I went for a doctor and stretcher bearers. As far as I know he is still alive, at any rate it was the last time I heard of him. On November 10th I got a bullet through the flesh of my right leg, and had to be taken to hospital.

  The opponents of the 11th Brigade had been the German 40th and 26th Divisions from their Sixth Army.

  Bent was first sent to Oxfordshire and then to the 15th Northern General Hospital at Leicester. He then returned home to Suffolk. When interviewed he was still limping very badly and only walked with the aid of a walking stick. His VC was gazetted on 9 December 1914. Bent received his decoration from the King at Buckingham Palace on 13 January a few weeks later.

  Spencer John Bent was born at the Pickerel Inn, Station Yard, Stowmarket, on 18 March 1891. He was the son of Spencer Bent and Gertrude Baker. John Baker, one time landlord of the inn, was Gertrude’s father. His father was killed in the Boer War, when serving with the Royal Horse Artillery. Spencer junior was, therefore, brought up from the age of seven by his uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs William Baker. They lived at Verandah Cottage, Witnesham, near Ipswich. Bent decided to enlist at the very young age of fourteen, in July 1905. He signed on in Ipswich as a Drummer with the 1st East Lancashire Regiment.

  As a young man in the army he seems to have enjoyed boxing and football. He quickly obtained the nickname of ‘Joe’ during the early part of his army service. He was stationed with the East Lancashires in a camp at The Curragh, Ireland from 1905 to 1908, followed by four years’ service in Woking, until 1912. He then moved with his unit to Colchester, where he heard of the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914. Ten days later he journeyed to France. By this time he had served in the army for nine years.

  After Bent had won his VC at the beginning of November 1914 he was sent home to recover from his wounds. The Daily Sketch of 11 December 1914 published a front-page photograph of him greeting a former farmer-friend at Witnesham. In Ipswich a week later, he was presented with a cheque for £50 in a special casket, a reward sponsored by a local businessman, a Mr T. Curtis. It was presented by the mayor of Ipswich, Mr J.D. Cobbold in recognition of the first Ipswich holder of the VC in the war. It was clearly thought that Witnesham was near enough Ipswich to qualify.

  In January 1915 Bent was promoted to the rank of corporal. On 16 January the Bury Free Press reported:

  Nearly all the recipients of honours drove to and from the Palace in closed motors and taxi-cabs, and of the little group
of Victoria Cross heroes, only one left the Palace on foot. This was Drummer Bent, a sturdy lad, who was warmly congratulated by several relatives who awaited him outside the gates. Bent is a modest man. He had divested himself of his decoration and passed through a crowd of people unnoticed as a Victoria Cross hero. It was not until a group of photographers had persuaded him again to pin the Cross to his breast for the purpose of a picture that his identity as a hero of character was revealed.

  Bent spent several months helping with recruiting while he was still convalescing and was promoted to sergeant. In 1916 he returned to the Western Front with the 1st East Lancashires but was invalided home in November after the Battle of the Somme. In the spring of 1917 he was back in the Le Gheer region where he had won his VC in 1914. In June 1917 he took part in the Messines Ridge battle with the 7th Battalion and at the same time was promoted to the rank of company sergeant major. In February 1918 Bent returned once more to the 1st Battalion and later in the year at the end of October he commanded a successful patrol in the Mons area, and was subsequently awarded the Military Medal on 3 November 1918, for ‘bravery in the field.’