ROLL OF HONOUR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 8, 21 October 1941, Page 3

ROLL OF HONOUR

TWENTY-ONE NEW ZEALANDERS. WINNERS OF VICTORIA CROSS. The award of tlie Victoria Cross to Second-Lieutenant C. H. tJpliam, Sorgennt A. C. Huhne and Sergeant J. D. \ Hinton brings the number of New Zealanders who have ever won this honour to 21. Mr Upham is also the first in either tlie First or the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Forces to have won the Empire’s highest service award as an officer. Although a number of ihe New Zealanders awarded the Victoria Cross in the Groat- War became officers later, none was holding a Commission at the time of winning it. Two awards of the Victoria Cross had been made to Now Zealanders before the Great War began. They were to Major Charles Hoapliy, of the Colonial Militia, for bravery in the Maori Wars, and to Farrier-Sergeant W. J. Hardhnni for. a courageous exploit in the South African War. While Major Heaphy was the only one who could be regarded as a New Zealander, he was not- the only soldier to receive a Victoria Cross in the Maori Wats, but the 14 others who won them were Imperial soldiers and sailors.

Gallipoli and France. Two Victoria Crosses wore won hv New Zealanders on Gallipoli, the soldiers being Corporal, later Lieutenant, C. R. G. Bassett, Divisional Signal Company, and Captain A. J. Shout, who, however, was serving with the Australian Imperial Force.

Tlie ton members of t he New Zealand Expeditionary Force who received the award on the Western Front wore: — Second-Lieutenant ’L. W. Andrew, Wellington Regiment; Sergeant I). .F. Brown, Otago Regiment; Private J. Crichton, Auckland Regiment; Sergeant S. Forsyth, Engineers; SecondLieutenant S. Fricldeton, Rifle Brigade ; Second-Lieutenant J. G. Grant, Wellington Regiment; Second-Lieuten-ant R. S. Judson, Auckland Regiment; Second Lieutenant H. J. Laurent, Rifle Brigade; Private H. J. .Nicholas, Canterbury Regiment; Sergeant R. C. Travis, Otago Regiment. The awards to Sergeants Brown, Forsyth and Travis were posthumous. Second-LieU-tcnant- Judson and Sergeant Travis also won the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal, and Private Nicholas the Military Medal. A New Zealander, Lieutenant P. V. Storkey, Australian Imperial Force, was awarded the honour for bravery in an attack near Villers Bretonneux in 1918. Freyberg and Sanders. Two other New Zealanders also won the Victoria Cross in the Great War. They were the present officer commanding the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Major-General B. C. Freyberg, and Lieutenant-Commander W. E. Sanders, Royal Naval Reserve. Major-General Freyberg was then serving in the Royal Naval Division, and Commander Sanders was officer commanding a. Q-ship. Not included in the list of New Zealand winners of the Victoria Cross in the Great War is Second-Lieutenant W. B. RhodesMoorhouso, Royal Flying Corps, who had a family connection with New Zealand.

First of the four New Zealand “V.C.!s” of the present war was Sergeant. Pilot J. A. Ward, Royal Air Force. As a member of the New Zealand Bomber Squadron, he climbed out on to the wing of his machine while it was in flight to extinguish flames which had broken on I after the aircraft had been hit by enemy fire.