Passchendaele Victoria Cross recipients | Commonwealth War Graves Commission |  

Respect always never forgotten.

Myself also...My Grandfather was captured at El Alemein...he spoke freely of his exploits..(warts an all!)....that is why I served 23 years in the British Army...

IMHO, every CWGC headstone - not just the VC winners - marks the grave of a brave service man or woman. Respect. Lest we forget!!

You served in Afghanistan... I assure you, Sir, *_You've got the Plums._*

yeah, you would have, never sell yourself short

Not just 19, much younger. Boys as young as 14 could enlist in the army and navy. A lad named Cornwall should fire your memory. Facta non verba.

@@chuckhainsworth4801 what he went through is beyond words. He stayed at his position l actually use that when l must endure.

@@chuckhainsworth4801 Boy Cornwall did nothing to earn a Victoria Cross.

Very well said! 👍

Well we live in a world where feelings have become more important than any fact. and this is a deggenrateion of the humaan mind it is sad, but this is the result og "not offending those who want to be offended" while I say, lets not at all care that anyone are offended, lets mock it in the name f fact, that and only will make us learn and move on to a better time and make the world better.....not y feelings but by facts and facts alone.

@@bokvarv1926 🤔 I fully agree with your comment. None of these men should be forgotten, or their memory denigrated. Reading a biography of Noel Chavasse reduced me to tears. Such. humanity, service and sacrifice is beyond the understanding of many today. I, for one, will Never Forget.

@@sirmeowthelibrarycat one might question why Chavasse was in no man’s land looking for the wounded when there were trained stretcher bearers to do the job. As a medical officer, Chavasse should have been behind the lines tending the wounded. This is a very moot point. It has been mentioned that Chavasse was a ‘medal hunter’. These are just other points of view.

@@anthonyeaton5153 😡 I cannot find any words other than expletives to describe your comment. Have you absolutely no idea of war conditions faced by medical staff? Or that stretcher bearers were not protected from assault and death? Or that the number of casualties was often in the thousands across a wide area? Or that the cries of the wounded could be heard for hours? Or that ideals of morality and responsibility were very different in Edwardian England than now? That the Chavasse family were deeply religious and committed to social reforms? As for the near libellous reference to Noel Chavasse acting as a ‘medal hunter’ nothing is more offensive than that. I have a challenge for you. Post another nasty comment but about Captain Charles Upham VC VC New Zealand and send it to the government of that country. I doubt you would be permitted entrance to New Zealand for the rest of your worthless existence. Vile person!

'for our freedom?' Garbage. They did it for financiers and out of touch royalty.

@@sixsixteensevens297 they did it as a patriotic duty for their country and if it wasn't for them and every other soldier, airmen and sailor who have died in other conflicts then you wouldn't have the rights you have today. Let me ask you question mate have you ever been to a CWGC war cemetery or memorial? Did you get a tear in your eye when you saw the sheer number of lives lost in the war? The number of headstones with unknown soldiers on them and families never knowing where their loved one is buried? Just consider that

My Great-Grand Father's name is on a wall in Tyne Cot. He was a Gunner in the British Army Artillery. His battery took a direct hit and all that is left is a crater and their names. I bought his Poppy from _The Tower Of London memorial_ and gave it to my father. Until then, we never knew what happened to him. I found a picture online. He looked like my father's twin brother.... down to the pipe.

@@kylehutchinson2729 Ignore this individual who calls themselves SixSixteen Sevens. There is always at least one like them who skulks around comment sections on videos like this one. These are the sort of people who go through life blaming the so-called 'elites' of this world for the fact that their own lives are pathetic and meaningless. So much easier to blame others than to take personal responsibility. As for the unselfish sacrifice and bravery shown by these men in WW1, well that is beyond the understanding of people like this as they view the world through their blinkered misery.

@@anonymousforever thank you for your reply. Your right their sacrifice was unselfish and their bravery will never die as they fought in conditions that no one can ever imagine and countless numbers of men who will never be known to their families as they lie 'known unto god' that is the heart breaking part.

Thank you for that information I actually had no idea and that is really interesting

my great-great uncle was one of them

My grandfather & great-uncle were both there. 2 immigrants to Toronto from Northern Ireland aged 33 & 31, one with a wife & 2 daughters, both went back to fight for King & Country. My great-uncle volunteered in 1915 & grandfather a year later. Both were there to the end, through the last Hundred Days when the Canadians & Australians broke the Hindenburg Line. Both "survived" the war although both were wounded. I never knew my grandfather. He was gassed & died in 1932, aged 50, of a heart attack, they said. My great-uncle lived with us for a few years in the early 1950s. Much to my mother's dismay, he used to delight in sitting me on his bed to watch as he tweezed another piece of shrapnel out of his horny old foot. I still have the brass bowl he kept the slivers in.

And the only place in the world where you can find three Victoria Cross's awarded to three men who grew up on the same street. I don't recall what it used to be, it has always been Valour Road to me. Strangely enough, Valour Road leads to the local Militia HQ, Minto Armouries.

@@chuckhainsworth4801 having grown up in Winnipeg myself, it was “pounded into our heads that Hall, Clark and Shankland who all resided on Pine Street before WW1, were the bravest of the brave. That’s why it was renamed Valour Road. All 3 were awarded the VC. Shankland enlisted in WW2 but since he was in his mid fifties, served as a quartermaster behind the lines

he's my great-great-uncle

A hell of a lot of VC winners survived.

@@anthonyeaton5153 I think more didn't. I will see I I can find the statistics. Stay tuned. Well, 75% of the recipients did survive. The VC has been handed out 1358 times, but until 1920 it could not be awarded posthumously. Although apparently 12 were given to family. The award has been rescinded 8 times. It was awarded 628 times in the Great War with 2 men winning it twice, 182 times in the Second World War with one man winning it twice, and 15 times since 1945. VCs issued by Commonwealth countries rather than by the British authorities are not included in the total. Far more complex that I thought!

@@kellybreen5526 it is true more survived the action than died. In WW2 it was the other way round.

Jabba .....This being the Commonwealth War Graves Commission channel, that’s probably not their subject. There is a German War Graves Commission and they have a website (and maybe even a channel on RU-vid?) .

Septic Calling thank you for your reply, heroes come in all nationalities. I’m a Brit but I signed both axis and allied commemorative books when I visited the war graves in France

The German equivalent until the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm was the Pour le Merite - unusually a French name for a German award!! It was commonly known as "the Blue Max". Then, unfortunately, Hitler came along and instituted the Ritterkreuz (the Knight's Cross), until he committed suicide when trapped like a rat in a clogged sewer.