(From the drawing by S. Begg. By permission of The Illustrated London News.)
Second Lieutenant Rupert Price Hallowes, 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment.
At Hooge, between 25th September and 1st October, Lieutenant Hallowes over and over again inspired his men by his bravery and untiring energy. On one occasion he climbed on to the parapet and risked immediate death to encourage his comrades. Frequently he went forward into German positions during the night to spy out the land. During one of the attacks he went back under a heavy fire and brought up a fresh supply of bombs. Even when mortally wounded he continued to cheer his men and urge them to hold on.
Sergeant-Major John Crawshaw Raynes, "A" Battery, 71st Brigade, R.F.A.
When taking leave of his comrades before setting out for France, Sergeant-Major Raynes said to a chum, "I'll bet you a shilling I win the V.C." The wager was taken, and on 11th October, near Béthune, the sergeant won his bet. His battery had been very heavily bombarded, and when "Cease fire" was ordered he went out under a burst of heavy shells and bandaged Sergeant Ayres, who lay wounded forty yards in front. He then returned and worked his guns once more. During a pause in the firing he again went out to his friend and carried him into a dug-out. A gas shell burst at the mouth of the dug-out, and the wounded man was in peril of being suffocated. Seeing this, Sergeant-Major Raynes ran back across the open to fetch his gas helmet, which Sergeant Ayres donned and thus saved his life. Then the gallant Sergeant-Major, now badly gassed, staggered back to serve his guns once more. On 12th October he was buried in the ruins of a house, but was the first man to be rescued. He had been wounded in the head and the leg; nevertheless he worked might and main to save his comrades. As soon as his wounds were dressed he returned again to his battery.
Second Lieutenant C. G. Vickers, 1/7th (Robin Hood) Battery, Sherwood Foresters.
You will remember that on 13th October a division, consisting of Territorials from Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Grimsby, and other North Midland towns, was ordered to assault the Hohenzollern Redoubt. "It is a story of men attacking machine guns, of rushes across the open with no spot of cover, of fierce work with bomb and bayonet in a narrow trench. What flesh and blood could do they did." The Sherwood Foresters were sent in on the afternoon of the 13th, and bombing encounters went on all night. When reliefs were arrived at one o'clock on the morning of the 14th, Lieutenant Vickers was discovered holding a barrier against fierce German attacks from front and flank. All his men but two had been killed or wounded, and single-handed he was beating back the foe while his men built a barrier behind him. At last he was badly wounded, but not before he had secured the safety of his trench.
Corporal James Lennox Dawson, 187th Company, R.E.
Prior to the war Corporal Dawson was a science master in Hill's Trust School, Govan. On 13th October, at Hohenzollern Redoubt, we prepared a gas attack against the enemy. Corporal Dawson, who had already proved himself a gallant and resourceful leader, discovered that three of our gas cylinders were leaking, and that many of our own men would soon be rendered insensible by the fumes. Under a heavy fire he rolled the cylinders one by one out of the trench, and then returning, lay down and fired at them with a rifle. The cylinders were broken open, and the gas escaped towards the enemy. There is no doubt that by his cool gallantry he saved many men from being gassed. You may be sure that when the hero visited his old school he was received by his former pupils with rapturous applause.
Private Thomas Kenny, 13th (Service) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.