Corporal Issy Smith also received from the Tsar the Order of St. George, the Russian equivalent to our Victoria Cross. He was a Jew, and when he returned to London the Jewish body gave him a great welcome. His fellow-members of the Berner Street School Old Boys' Club presented him with a gold watch suitably inscribed. After receiving it Corporal Smith assured his "pals" that he had only done his duty, and said that any other man would have done the same.
Private John Lynn, 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.
When the Germans were advancing behind their waves of poison gas, Private Lynn, though almost overcome by the deadly fumes, rushed to his machine gun without waiting to put on his respirator. Single-handed he kept his gun in action all the time the gas was rolling over the trench. When he could no longer see his foes, he moved his gun higher up the parapet, and poured such a stream of lead into the advancing Germans that they were completely checked. The gallant fellow, now gasping and choking from the effects of the gas, was carried to his dug-out; but when he learnt that the enemy was coming on again, he tried to get back to his gun. Twenty-four hours later he died—a victim to gas-poisoning. "That Lancashire lad," says a writer, "died a hundred deaths. He knew his risk—saw the fume-bank rolling towards him, yet fought on in the hideous fog, resolute still, though in the clutch of a terrible fate."
Lance-Sergeant Douglas Walter Belcher, 1/5th (City of London) Battalion, the London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade).
Lance-Sergeant Belcher was the second Territorial to receive the Victoria Cross. Early on the morning of 13th May he was in charge of an advanced breastwork, which guarded the flank of one of our divisions somewhere to the south-west of Fortuin. The Germans fiercely bombarded this breastwork, and blew it in. Nevertheless, Lance-Sergeant Belcher and ten men remained amidst the ruins of their position and sent back to their comrades who had retired the following message: "We're holding on, whatever happens." Belcher and his handful of "die hards" kept a close watch on the enemy, and as soon as they saw parties of Germans massing for an attack, opened a rapid and skilful fire on them. Time after time the parties were dispersed, and the Germans came to the conclusion that a whole company was opposing them. By means of this heroic "bluff" a large force was kept at bay for thirteen hours, and the flank of the line was saved. Lance-Sergeant Belcher was afterwards promoted second lieutenant.
