YOUNGEST V.C. IN ARMY

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8178, 3 May 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

YOUNGEST V.C. IN ARMY

GALLANT EXPLOIT OF A NEW. FOUNDLAND LAD.

Private Thomas Ricketts, of the Ist Royal Newfoundland Regiment, who lias been decorated iby the King with the Victoria Cross, is the youngest Y.C. in the British Army. Son of a fisherman Middle Arm, White Bay, Newfoundland who earns his living on*the Great Bank, Ricketts joined the regiment ill September 1916. His ardour for the war led him to declare himself 18. In fact, lie was a schoolboy of 15, stoutly built and ol medium height. Now the wearer of the Y.C.. the D.C.M., and the French Croix de Guerre (with Golden Star), he returns to Newfoundland to resume his studies—probably at Bishop Field College, St. John’s. Hearing of this, and remembering that there will lie no investiture before February, the King sent for the lad, and received him at York Cottage, Sandringham. “This s the youngest Y.C. in my Army,” said the King, introducing him to a bishop who happened to be in the room; and the King then read aloud the record of the bold achievement, for Ricketts, while one of the bravest lads in. the Army, is probably the very shyest. He • ' struck dumb when asked to tell what lie did in the great war. His brave act was uuriolirdy like thrift of Corporal. Gregory, which Sir A. Conan Doyle immortalised in “A Story of Waterloo." Wounded at Cambrai in November, 1917. Ricketts went back to France in April, 1918. On October 14, during the British advance from Ledegnem, the attack was held up by heavy hostile fire, and Rickett’s platoon suffered severe casualties from a battery at point-blank range. Ricketts volunteered to go forward with his section commander and fi Lewis gun to outflank the battery. They advanced by short rushes, but their ammunition was exhausted while still 300 yards short, and the enemy tried to get their guns away. Ricketts doubled back under heavy machine-gun fire, got more ammunition, and by accurate fire drove the German gun teams into a farm. The Newfoundland platoon, then advanced, captured the guns, and saved the situation. While at Sandringham the youngest Y.C. was presented >o the oldest Y.C.. Sir J lighten PrObyn, who gave his warmest congratulations to Ricketts.