Victoria Cross Winner’s of the Great War

633 Victoria Crosses, the highest British medal were awarded during the First World War, 187 of which Posthumously. All the tales of the acts of bravery by both men and women are deeply moving, but a few imparticular caught my eye…

Raphael Louis Zengel

Who under the face of the enemy, maintained constant withering fire and captured important machine gun emplacements although injured and being knocked unconscioius by a shell explosion, previous.

Captain Noel Chavasse – Double VC winner

He was not armed, nor was he a soldier, but he still won two victoria crosses which has only ever been achieved by three men, including himself. Noel Chavasse was a Captain in the army medical core, and he won his first VC due to his persistance to constantly enter the highly dangerous No Man’s Land whistling and shining a torch despite being shot at by snipers and heavy artillery to find the dead and the wounded and attend to them, saving many lives.  During the first battle of the Somme, despite being severely wounded he continued his duty, and carried a wounded man 500 metres to safety. His second VC was awarded after the Battle of Passchendaele. With his men he had set up a first aid post in a captured german dugout, it was hit by a shell and he suffered from a fractured skull. He refused full medical treatment, and continued to help those injured although acquiring two more head injuries himself. On August the 2nd he was hit by a the blast of a shell leaving him with a severe stomach wound. He died two days later.

Unknown – I know of this mans story but not of his name…

Whilst preparing grenades for use in a dugout, one of them actually became live. Unthinkingly, this man threw himself over the grenade, absorbing the full impact of the explosion, dying to save his comrades.

Drummer Spencer Bent

Two of several of his brave acts … delivering essential supplies to frontline trenches under heavy fire, then on the 3rd of November, going into No Man’s Land to rescue wounded men. One of these were a full 30 yards from the trench, and due to being met by blasts of rifle fire at every rescue attempt, he had to hook his legs under the mans armpits and gently shuffle backwards to the trench, still being shot at. Shortly afterwards, Bent sustained shrapnel injuries to his arms and hands, a gunshot wound to his leg and a smaller wound to his head. He was sent back to England where he received medical care and only discovered he had won a Victoria Cross when he read about it in the local paper. He returned to the war in 1916 and he died peacefully in sleep years later aged 86.

   The Medal Itself