VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front

by Peter F Batchelor

  The battalion remained in its trenches throughout the day until relieved during the early hours of 13 March. Battalion casualties for Neuve Chapelle were 15 officers and 299 other ranks.

  Anderson’s VC was published in the London Gazette on 22 May 1915. Anderson’s name appears on the Le Touret Memorial to the Missing at Richebourg-l’Avoué, together with the names of 234 other members of the Yorkshire Regiment who have no known grave.

  The son of Alexander and Bella Anderson, William Anderson was born at Dallas, Elgin, Morayshire, on 28 December 1882. He was educated at Forres Academy and, prior to his original enlistment in the Army, worked for the Glasgow Tramways Depot and at Elder Hospital, Govan, Glasgow. In 1905 he joined the 2nd Bn, Yorkshire Regt, and served with it for seven years in India, Egypt and South Africa. He joined the Reserve in 1912.

  He was called up from the Reserve at the outbreak of war. At that time he was living at Port Clarence, on the River Tees near Middlesbrough, where he was engaged to be married to Miss Dudley. Having been promoted to acting corporal, Anderson landed in France on 14 November 1914 to join the 2nd Bn who, by 8 November had been reduced to three officers and 220 other ranks. They were holding the line near Ploegsteert.

  On Christmas Day the battalion arranged an armistice with the Germans opposite, which lasted over the New Year and enabled both sides to improve their trenches, bury their dead and exchange gifts. This truce could not last and the resumption of hostilities was described as ‘war is again being waged and the potting at each other’s heads has once more begun’. In early March the battalion moved to Estaires in preparation for the forthcoming action at Neuve Chapelle.

  William Anderson’s VC was due to be presented by the King to his brother in 1919, after his demobilization, but he was not well enough to attend the ceremony. On 19 May 1920, however, the VC was presented to Mr A. Anderson in the banqueting hall of Edinburgh Castle by Lt-Gen. Sir Francis Davies. General Davies had been in command of the 7th Division and was responsible for sending in the recommendation for Anderson’s award.

  In 1969 Mr Anderson presented his brother’s VC to the regiment at a small ceremony in his home at Inverlochy, Fort William. The Green Howards’ Museum at Richmond, Yorkshire, holds ten of the twelve VCs won by the regiment during the Great War.

  C.C. FOSS

  Neuve Chapelle, France, 12 March

  The only Victoria Cross awarded to an officer at Neuve Chapelle was the second won by the 21st Bde, the recipient, Capt. C.C. Foss DSO, then serving with the 2nd Bn, Bedfordshire Regt.

  With other units of the 21st Bde, 7th Div., the Bedfords moved out of their billets early on 10 March and by mid-morning had advanced to positions close to the Rue du Tilleloy, north-west of Neuve Chapelle. Casualties were caused by enemy shell-fire while the battalion waited nearly six hours before advancing through the former front lines to a position in support of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (RSF), who held a pronounced salient north-east of the village (see map on page 25).

  The Bedfords remained in the same trenches throughout the 11th, under shrapnel, rifle and machine-gun fire. The salient to its front, close to High Trees Corner (a bend in the Mauquissart Road), was rushed by the Germans at dawn on 12 March and its defenders, a company of RSF, were overcome. A number of A Coy, led by two captains, charged across the 150 yards of open ground in an attempt to retake the position but every member of this party was killed or wounded. At 07.35 hours the battalion reported the situation to 21st Brig. HQ, who ordered that the captured trenches be retaken. Capt. Foss and a small party of bombers advanced up a trench in a flank attack, followed by a platoon in support, and after a few grenades had been thrown the occupying Germans surrendered. A single officer and 48 other ranks were taken prisoner, of whom 14 were wounded.

  The Official History states that:

  … seeing this, some 100 more survivors of the 5 a.m. German attack, lying out in the shell holes and ditches in front of their main position … returned to their trenches pursued by bullets ….

  The recaptured position was consolidated by the battalion and, after dark, two machine-guns positioned there. The Battalion War Diary named nine men who accompanied Maj. Foss, although the VC citation says eight. The battalion was relieved and returned to billets late on 14 March. The casualties for the battle totalled 208 of all ranks.

  Capt. Foss’s VC was published in the London Gazette dated 23 May 1915:

  For most conspicuous bravery at Neuve Chapelle, on the 12 March 1915. After the enemy had captured a part of one of our trenches, and our counter-attack made with one officer and twenty men having failed (all but two of the party being killed or wounded in the attempt), Capt. Foss, on his own initiative, dashed forward with eight men, and under heavy fire attacked the enemy with bombs, and captured the position, including the fifty-two Germans occupying it. The capture of this position from the enemy was of the greatest importance, and the utmost bravery was displayed in essaying the task with so very few men.

  It was not until 28 October that Capt. Foss received his VC. An inspection of units from the 2nd and 7th Divs was organized on a piece of ground north-west of the La Buissierre–Hesdigneul road, near Hesdigneul, France, under the command of Brig.-Gen. G.E. Corkran CMG. After inspecting the assembled troops the King presented Capt. Foss with his award.

  Charles Calveley Foss, the eldest son of the Bishop of Osaka, the Rt Revd Hugh James Foss DD, was born at The Firs, Kobe, Japan, on 9 March 1885. His mother, Janet, the daughter of a Chester doctor, died in 1894. He attended Marlborough College, and joined the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in 1902 and was commissioned into the Bedfordshire Regiment at Colchester on 2 March 1904. Promoted to captain with the 2nd Bedfords on 20 November 1912, Capt. and Adjt. Foss was serving at Roberts Heights, South Africa, when war began. His battalion disembarked at Zeebrugge in early October 1914 and with it he served throughout the battles of First Ypres; his distinguished service was acknowledged by the announcement in the London Gazette on 1 January 1915 that Capt. C.C. Foss had been created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order.

  In June 1915 he married Vere Katherine, the widow of Capt. Pollard, an Indian Army officer. From August 1915 Foss served successively on the staffs of 20th Bde, 7th Div.; Second and First Canadian Divs, and Canadian Corps. He spent most of 1918 as an instructor at the Staff School, Cambridge, before returning to France as a staff officer with XXXII Corps in October, and was present at the final actions of the war. On Armistice Day 1918 Maj. Foss (he had received the Brevet of Major in 1916), was appointed GS01 to the 57th (West Lancashire) Div. and remained in this post until he attended Staff College, Camberley, in 1919.

  The Medal entitlement of Maj. and Brevet Lt-Col. Foss was the VC, CB , DSO , 1914 Star and Bar, BWM, BVM, Defence Medal (1939-45), War Medal (1939-45), King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, King George VI Coronation Medal, Order of Danilo (4th Class) (Montenegro) and was Mentioned in Despatches five times.

  Foss attended the garden party for VC winners at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920, and was also present at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on Armistice Day the same year. He graduated from the Staff College in 1920 and served as a staff officer at the War Office between 1925 and 1929. In October 1930 he took command of the King’s Liverpool Regiment, a post he held until 1933. In that year he was promoted to colonel and was appointed Commander Rangoon Brigade Area, also serving as ADC to King George V until 1937. During the Second World War he served with the Bedfordshire Home Guard, as Brigadier (Rtd), and County Commandant of the Bedfordshire Army Cadet Force.

  Charles Foss died on 9 April 1953 in a London hospital. He was survived by his wife Phyllis Ruth, whom he had married in 1950 following the death of his first wife in 1947. His second wife died in a Bournemouth nursing home in 1968. His medals are held in Luton Museum, Bedfordshire.

  E. BARBER AND W.D. FULLER

  Neuve Chapelle, France, 12 March

  Pte E. Barber

  The first Victoria Cross to be awarded to the Grenadi
er Guards (GG) since the Crimean War was won by the 1st Bn. Two men, Pte Edward Barber and L/Cpl Wilfred Fuller, won the coveted award on the same day, both for bombing actions but in separate incidents.

  L/Cpl W. Fuller

  The battalion, part of 20th Bde, 7th Div., moved forward early on the second day of the battle, 11 March, for an attack in the direction of Piètre but progress was halted by enfilade fire when it was about 300 yards short of the enemy main line. After withdrawing to support trenches during the night a further advance was attempted the following day when the battalion supported an attack by the 2nd Scots Guards and 2nd Border Regt. The assaulting battalions had crossed no more than 100 yards of no-man’s-land when the attack was halted, having been postponed. The 2nd Borders in particular suffered heavy losses from the Quadrilateral, a large redoubt west of Mauquissart, where several enemy machine-guns were installed. Following an accurate artillery bombardment the attack got under way at 12.30 hours with much more success. The Scots Guards and the Borders rushed the Quadrilateral and 400 German prisoners were taken. The 1st GG, however, made little progress as direction was lost in the maze of old communication trenches. On the left of the Borders a party of bombers from the 20th Bde reserve, led by Capt. W.E. Nichol, 1st GG, and supported by a company of 2nd Wilts, quickly rushed through the old enemy trenches in no-man’s-land to the German front line. The defenders were taken by surprise and large numbers surrendered to the bombers as they captured about 40 yards of trench (see map on page 25).

  It was here that the two VCs were won. No. 15624 L/Cpl Fuller saw a number of Germans attempting to retreat along a communication trench. He ran to the front of this party and killed the leading man with a bomb, which persuaded the remainder, about fifty men, to surrender to him as he blocked their escape route. In the same area and at about the same time, No. 15518 Pte Barber charged well ahead of his bombing section and hurled his bombs at the Germans with such effect that a ‘very great number of them at once surrendered’. When the grenade party reached Barber they found him ‘quite alone and unsupported with the enemy surrendering all about him’.

  Both Fuller and Barber were actually in Brigade reserve when they won their awards. The system operated as follows: each battalion in a brigade provided thirty trained bombers, of whom twenty usually remained with the battalion while the remainder – the brigade reserve – were used by the brigade as and when needed.

  The battalion moved during the night of 12/13 March to new positions on the left of 8th Div., and became very scattered as the move was not completed until daylight and parties had to dig in wherever they could to avoid enemy fire. Shelling from both sides troubled the battalion throughout the day before it was relieved during the night. Losses by the GG at Neuve Chapelle amounted to 14 officers, including the commanding officer, and 325 men.

  There was some confusion as to Barber’s fate. Initially he was reported to have died on 12 March, but other reports stated he was killed on 19 March. The register for the Le Touret Memorial to the Missing, on which his name is commemorated, states: ‘Presumed to have died on or since 12 March 1915.’

  Both citations appeared in the London Gazette on 19 April 1915 and Fuller was invested with his VC by the King at Buckingham Palace on 4 June 1915.

  Edward Barber was born on 10 June 1893 at 40 King Street, Tring, Hertfordshire, the third of four sons of William Barber, a blacksmith, and Sarah Ann, his wife. Educated at the National Schools, Tring, Barber worked as a bricklayer’s labourer before joining the Grenadier Guards in October 1911.

  Barber’s last leave was in July 1914, when he was considering joining the Buckinghamshire Constabulary after his three-year term of service was completed later that year. Instead he was posted to France with 1st Bn Grenadier Guards. The last communication received by his parents was in early March 1915 when he wrote that he was helping to instruct Canadian troops, whom he described as ‘very nice fellows indeed’.

  The news of Barber’s award, and of his death, was sent in a letter from Cpl Fuller to Barber’s cousin, Miss Sanders, at Slough. He wrote:

  As I was a great friend of Cousin Ted, and also the NCO which he was under, I think it my duty to write and let you know what has happened to him. He was a great favourite in the Grenadiers Coy, from our Officer to the ranks and was highly respected. He had won the highest Honour that could be won, The Victoria Cross, and by doing his duty he was picked off by a German Sniper, and a bullet penetrated through his brain, death being instantaneous. Your cousin feared nothing, and he was the finest man in wit and courage, The Grenade Company send their deepest sympathy.

  The family received official information from the War Office that he had been killed two days after he had captured ‘a very great number of Germans’. Talking to a reporter Mrs Barber said, ‘Of course we are very proud, but I can’t bear to lose my boy. What is the Victoria Cross to the loss of my son?’ Mrs Barber went to Windsor Castle on 16 November 1916 to receive her son’s VC from the King. Barber’s three brothers were all serving in the armed forces at the time of his death; Alfred, aged 32, with the RAMC, William Charles, aged 29, with the 1st Herts, and the youngest, Ernest, aged 18, in training with the 2nd Herts. Sadly 266355 Private Ernest Barber, 1st Herts, died of wounds on 18 September 1920 and is buried in Tring Cemetery, plot F.90.

  Wilfred Dolby Fuller was born at East Kirkby, Nottinghamshire (now part of Kirkby-in-Ashfield), on 28 July 1893 and by 1907 the family were living at 9 Skerry Hill, Mansfield, having resided at Shirebrook and Warsop Vale in the intervening years. Fuller was a member of Warsop Vale Choir and also played the bugle in a local band. It was at Warsop Vale that he started work at the main colliery as a pony driver; his father, Walter, was also a colliery worker, and, when living at Mansfield, both were employed at Mansfield Colliery, Walter as night deputy and Wilfred as pony driver.

  He had ambitions to be a soldier and on 30 December 1911 he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards without informing his parents. He was stationed at Wellington Barracks, London, as a garrison policeman when war began and was posted overseas with the 1st Bn, and promoted to lance-corporal in December 1914.

  Prior to the announcement of his award, Fuller wrote home ‘Look out for good news,’ and in a subsequent letter, ‘Barber and I have been recommended for the VC. Don’t you think it an honour.’ He returned to Mansfield in April and on the 20th was given a public reception in the town. It was reported in the Nottingham Guardian of 24 April that Sir Arthur Markham gave the Mayor of Mansfield £100 ‘for a permanent record of Fuller’s bravery’.

  Fuller came back to Mansfield on leave immediately before his VC presentation and on 3 June was presented with an address and a gold watch by the Mayor. Most of his leave was spent addressing recruiting meetings in the mining district around Mansfield. On 29 September 1915, during a visit to the Base Hospital, the King awarded Fuller the Order of St George, 3rd Class (Russia). In the Daily Telegraph’s report of the event the following day, the newspaper had promoted Fuller to colonel!

  Fuller’s future wife, Helena Wheeler, resorted to unusual tactics to get his attention; the use of a hat-pin, deftly applied from behind while Fuller was sitting in the Victoria Palace music hall in London achieved the desired result – he certainly noticed her – and they were eventually married on 13 March 1916.

  Discharged from the Army as medically unfit on 31 October 1916 with the rank of corporal, Fuller joined the Somerset Police in 1919. An odd incident occurred some ten years later when his pay was reduced by 2 shillings a week for two years, following ‘discreditable conduct in that he opened a desk drawer in the police station with a key’. He served as a constable in various police stations in Somerset but after a prolonged period of poor health, when he was on sick leave for months at a time, he retired on 2 July 1940.

  Fuller died at his home, Far End, The Styles, Frome, Somerset, on 22 November 1947 and was buried at Christ Church, Frome, on 26 November. The funeral was very well attended and included a hundred Guardsmen and sixty m
embers of the local constabulary.

  Fuller’s medals, including the VC, were sold privately by his widow in 1974, the proceeds to benefit her children and grandchildren as her husband would have wished, and are now held by the Grenadier Guards Museum. In 1987 a new housing development in Mansfield was named Fuller Close in memory of the town’s VC, seventy-two years after the council’s promise to commemorate his gallant deeds.

  H. DANIELS AND C.R. NOBLE

  Neuve Chapelle, France, 12 March

  CSM H. Daniels

  The last two of nine Victoria Crosses awarded at Neuve Chapelle were gained in a joint action by two men of the 2nd Bn, Rifle Brigade, 25th Bde, 8 Div. A/Cpl Noble and CSM Daniels were good friends so it was hardly surprising they would act together on this occasion.

  A/Cpl C.R. Noble

  The battalion was on the right of 25th Bde when the attack began on 10 March and they advanced as planned through the ruins of the village with the advanced platoons as far as the old Smith-Dorrien Trench (fought over in the 1914 actions), east of Neuve Chapelle. Several prisoners were captured in this advance and the battalion entrenched at its objective, some 200 yards behind the Smith-Dorrien trench.

  Lt-Col. Stephens, the battalion’s CO, advised Bde HQ of his position and requested permission to advance further with suitable support, but was told that the left of the attack had been held up and that he must therefore keep the battalion where it was. A and C Coys were withdrawn from their covering positions in front of the main line because of losses being inflicted by British artillery.