| Date | 20 January 2006 |
|---|---|
| Source | Windsor Express |
| Reference | PN-0002 |
| Volume | People in the News |
| Collection | Press Clippings |
Transcript
This month we mark the 150th
Local heroes
The courageous local men who won VCs are remembered by DEREK HUNT, who wrote the authorised biography of Harry Greenwood VC, Valour Beyond All Praise (2003).
THE Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for bravery, is 150 years old this month. Since its inception, 1,352 VCs, and three Bars to existing VCs, have been awarded, many to men with Windsor connections.
Two of these Victoria Cross heroes were born in the town.
The first Windsor-born VC winner was Alexander Hore-Ruthven, who was born at The Hermitage on July 6, 1872. He attended Eton College (one of 37 former pupils to win the VC) before joining the Highland Light Infantry.
On September 22, 1898, during an action at Gedaref in Sudan, Captain Hore-Ruthven saw an Egyptian officer lying wounded within 50 yards of the advancing Dervishes.
He picked up the wounded officer and carried him to safety, dropping him several times in order to fire upon the Dervishes. Hore-Ruthven was awarded his VC by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in May 1899.
After retiring from the army, with the rank of Brigadier-General, in 1928 he was appointed Governor of South Australia and later Governor-General of Australia. For his outstanding work in Australia he was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Gowrie.
In 1945 Lord Gowrie was appointed Deputy Constable and Lieutenant Governor of Windsor Castle, a position he retained until he finally retired from public life in 1953.
He also became president of the Royal Windsor Horse Show and in that capacity was a familiar figure in the Home Park at shows for several years. He died in May 1955.
In 1997, a blue plaque was erected at his birthplace and unveiled by his grandson, the 2nd Earl of Gowrie.
Harry Greenwood was the other Windsor-born man to be awarded the VC. He was born at Victoria Barracks, where his father was a senior NCO in the Grenadier Guards, on November 25, 1881.
There were no proper married quarters at the time and married soldiers had to make their own arrangements for accommodating their families.
Because of his seniority, Sergeant Greenwood was allowed to accommodate his family in the barracks, but they would have found little privacy.
Harry Greenwood served in South Africa during the Boer War and joined the King’s s Own Own Yorkshire Light Infantry during the First World War, serving in France and Belgium.
He won his VC near Ovillers, France on October 23/24, 1918. When his battalion was held up, Lt Colonel Greenwood single handed rushed the position and killed the gun crew. He later took another machine gun position and, although nearly surrounded by Germans, he led his troops forward and captured the battalion’s last objective.
The next day he again inspired his men to capture an important objective and safeguarded the flank of the division. His VC was awarded for valour and leadership during a two-day period. valour and leadership two-day period.
Harry Greenwood died in May 1948. In 1997 a blue plaque commemorating him was erected outside the gates of Victoria Barracks.
Oliver Brooks was born in Somerset on May 31, 1889, but lived in Windsor for many years. He was stationed at Victoria Barracks at the end of the First World War and was demobilised there in 1919. Не won his VC near Loos, France, on October 8, 1915, while serving in the Coldstream Guards.
He led a bombing party against the enemy who had captured a section of a British trench and, despite a hail of bombs from the Germans, managed to regain the lost ground.
Brooks is the only man to have received his VC at the Sovereign’s bedside. This unique form of investiture was the result of a serious fall from a horse by King George V, while he was reviewing troops in France in October 1915. Sgt Brooks was summoned to the King’s hospital train, where a private investiture ceremony was held. Brooks knelt by the King’s bed, but King George had overrated his strength and could not get the VC pin through Brooks’s thick tunic without assistance.
During the 1920s, Brooks was commissionaire at the White Hart Hotel (now Ye Harte and Garter), where he was a popular sight in his greatcoat and medals.
He was one of more than 300 VC recipients who attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace held by King George V in June, 1920, and also attended by Alexander Hore-Ruthven and Harry Greenwood.
Brooks was introduced to the King, who remembered him as the commissionaire at the White Hart. “Ah, you have not your usual uniform on today,” remarked the King as he cordially shook hands.
Oliver Brooks died in October 1940 and buried in Windsor Cemetery. There is a plaque to him in Holy Trinity Garrison Church and a blue plaque was erected at his former forn home in Clewer Avenue, Windsor in 1998.
The Windsor Victoria Cross Exhibition, held at the Guildhall in May 1998, featured these three VC winners with Windsor connections. The opening of the exhibition was attended by the families of the VC heroes as well as two VCs.
The story behind the VC
THE Crimean War (1854-1856) had drawn attention to the inadequacies of the existing means of awarding gallantry in action, and it became apparent that a new award, open to all ranks, was required. As a result, the Victoria Cross (VC) was instituted by Royal Warrant dated January 29, 1856 and made retrospective to 1854.
Though originally intended by Queen Victoria “to be highly prized and eagerly sought after by the Officers and Men of Our Naval and Military Services“, eligibility was later extended to Commonwealth forces and the
newly formed RAF.
The front of the cross (pictured below) features the Royal Crest and the inscription “For Valour‘. The decoration is made of bronze from Chinese cannons captured at the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War.
Images
