Sgt Brooks was also wounded in the head and shoulder at Guinchy in September 1916.
At a later stage in the war, Brooks was a bombing instructor, having among his pupils the Prince of Wales who, Brooks said, ‘became very proficient’ at the art.
Oliver Brooks married Marion Loveday on 17 August 1918, and they had two sons and two daughters. The eldest son was baptised at Windsor on 4 August 1919 and was named Oliver Victor Loos Brooks (see Laidlaw, page 188). Brooks was discharged from the Coldstream Guards on 27 February 1919 and became a commissionaire at the White Hart Hotel, Windsor. He was present at the garden party given by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920 and at the ceremony at the Cenotaph on 11 November that same year. Brooks was also an inaugural member of the Windsor Branch of the Coldstreamers’ Association. He acted as wreath-bearer for the Ypres League commemoration ceremony at the Cenotaph on 31 October 1929, handing the wreath to Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, the president of the Ypres League. Brooks took an active interest in the various remembrance ceremonies and attended the British Legion Dinner for VCs at the House of Lords on 9 November 1929. At about this time he left the White Hart Hotel, Windsor, taking up a similar appointment at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London, where, in April 1933, the ex-Kaiser’s grandson shook his hand saying ‘Every nation can recognise a brave man.’ Brooks attended a Ball in aid of Disabled Officers’ Garden Homes in June 1933 and was present with Michael O’Leary VC at the Ypres Day service at Horse Guards Parade at the end of October that year. In November he laid a wreath at the War Memorial in Bath at the Armistice Day service.
Oliver Brooks died on Friday 25 October 1940, aged 51, at 47 Clewer Avenue, Windsor, where he and his wife had lived for thirty-five years. He was buried in Windsor Borough Cemetery in grave space GN 352: 2 down, 5 across. Mrs Marion Brooks gave her husband’s VC and four other medals to the Coldstream Guards regimental museum on 9 August 1967; the medals were accepted by Gen. Sir George Burns, the colonel of the regiment, at a ceremony conducted at Wellington Barracks, Westminster, watched by her grandson, 19-year-old Coldstream Guardsman Brian Lucas-Carter. On Thursday 8 October 1987 Gen. Sir George Burns was at the dedication of a memorial stone to Oliver Brooks VC at Windsor Borough Cemetery, the stone having been presented by the regiment of the Coldstream Guards.
An oval stone tablet dedicated to Sgt Oliver Brooks VC is to be found in Holy Trinity Church, Windsor and on 27 May 1998 the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead unveiled a blue plaque at 47 Clewer Avenue.
J.C. RAYNES
Fosse 7 de Béthune, France, 11 October
A/Sgt Raynes won his VC on 11 October by saving the lives of fellow members of A Bty (71st Bde RFA, 15th Div.), including that of his best friend Sgt Ayres. The fighting at Loos carried on into early October, with the Germans determined to wrest back the ground they had lost in September. Fosse 7 de Béthune spoilheap stood near the point where the trenches crossed the Lens–Béthune road (see map on page 187). A Bty had been shelling the enemy from this position and when the infantry assault began, the battery moved into the captured town of Loos. From there they opened fire again but were soon subjected to a counter-battery bombardment which forced them to move out on to a plain near some dug-outs. The battery was heavily shelled with both armour-piercing and gas shells. When the ‘cease fire’ was ordered, Raynes soon learned that his friend Sgt Ayres had been hit. He ran to where Ayres was lying, some 40 yards away, bandaged his wounds and moved him a little way to greater safety before returning to his gun which was ordered back into action. The German shell-fire became so intense that a ‘cease-fire’ was again ordered and Raynes, with the help of two gunners who were killed very shortly afterwards, took advantage of the lull to carry Sgt Ayres back to the battery’s dug-out. As they arrived at the dug-out, gas-shells began to burst around them and, being unable to find Ayres’s ‘smoke-helmet’, Raynes fetched his own from his gun position and gave it to his wounded friend. Raynes then ventured out in search of another smoke-helmet but caught the full force of the gas and lay unconscious out in the open for a short while before coming round. He returned to the dug-out to find it had been blown in. Despite suffering severely from gas he began digging the men out; sadly he found only two survivors, Ayres and the others having been killed. (They are buried together in Fosse 7 Military Cemetary [Quality Street], Mazingarbe.) Raynes then staggered back to serve his gun.
On 12 October the battery moved to a house in Quality Street. A Bty’s commander later reported that ‘a huge projectile landed on the house used as our [A Bty] cook-house and completely wrecked it … burying sixteen of my men’. Raynes was among the men buried but managed to dig himself out and, although ‘bleeding freely in the head and wounded in the leg … he then dug out Sgt-Maj. Austin, severely wounded; he carried him across the road to a dressing station and returned to help others who were buried.’ After having his own wounds dressed Raynes reported for duty with his battery which was again being heavily shelled. His commander recommended him for his bravery and although Raynes knew before the official announcement on 18 November that he was to receive the VC, he did not let his relatives know. The severity of the enemy shelling endured by A Bty during these two days may be appreciated by the fact that on the 12th the battery commander ‘was obliged to send away to the dressing-station the whole of the personnel at that time with the firing battery. Only seven men survived to the end of the engagement’.
John Crawshaw Raynes, son of Stephen and Hannah Raynes, was born in June 1887 in Eccleshall, Sheffield, Yorkshire. He was the eldest of four children, having two sisters and one brother. His early years were spent at Abbeydale Road and Gleadless Road and he was educated at the Heeley National School. He worked for Mr T.W. Wood, a local coal merchant, and also for Mr S.H. Raynes, a decorator in Abbeydale Road. He entered the Army on 10 October 1904, joining the Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery, and served eight years with the Colours. During this time he married Miss Mabel Dawson on 24 April 1907, at the Leeds Registry Office; she later bore him two sons, John Kenneth, born on 30 January 1912, the year Raynes left the Army, and Tom Crawshaw, born on 6 February 1920. After leaving the Army, Raynes joined the Leeds City police where he worked until the outbreak of war when he was recalled for military service as a reservist. He became an army instructor at Preston and was offered a commission which he declined. He volunteered five times for active service before being sent to the front with a Kitchener’s Army draft as a corporal. He became acting-sergeant and after winning the VC was promoted to battery sergeant-major. According to Rev. W. Odom:
… an old scholar of our Day and Sunday Schools, a member of our Boys’ Brigade – Sergeant-Major J.C. Raynes, who, on his recovery, visited his old school, received a warm welcome from the vicar, teachers, and scholars, and in a simple, unassuming manner, after handing round his VC to the scholars, offered a few words of advice to the lads.
His former police colleagues presented him with a gold watch and chain to mark the honour he had brought to their force. Later he unveiled a local war memorial. His courageous acts took their toll on him, however, and he was discharged from the Army in December 1918 as ‘physically unfit’. A fund of £500 raised locally was used to buy him a house.
Returning to civilian life he rejoined the Leeds City police as a sergeant but struggled to continue with his duties, eventually being forced to take a desk job. His condition continued to deteriorate and he was compelled to retire in March 1926 as he was no longer able to do duty as he was suffering from spinal problems which paralysed his legs. He became bedridden, and was nursed by his wife. In 1929, to his deep regret, he was unable to attend the VC Dinner at the House of Lords on 9 November; he wondered if his 18-year-old son might be allowed to go as his representative. Raynes received a telegram on Armistice Day from the other Yorkshire VCs in London, conveying their greetings and expressing their regret that he could not complete the party. They promised him a memento of the dinner. On the day of the VC Dinner the newsp
aper the Sheffield Telegraph launched an appeal fund for Raynes, to raise £600 to buy him and his family ‘a convenient bungalow in pleasant and healthy surroundings’.
It seems that Raynes was depressed by his inability to join the 500 VCs in London and suffered a relapse, dying at his home at Grange Crescent, Chapeltown, near Leeds, on Wednesday 12 November 1929, aged 43 years and 7 months. The funeral took place on Saturday 16 November at Leeds. Eleven VCs were present, with the other eight Yorkshire VCs – Capt. G. Sanders, Lt W. Edwards, Sgt F. McNess, Sgt Hull, Sgt Mountain, L/Cpl F.W. Dobson, Pte A. Poulter and Pte W.B. Butler – acting as his pallbearers. Raynes’s coffin rested on a gun-carriage provided by the 71st Field Bde RA, and was followed by Capt. W.E. Gage, chairman of the Leeds ‘Old Contemptibles Association’, who bore a purple cushion on which rested Raynes’ medals, his VC, 1914–15 Star, General Service Medal and Victory Medal. Lt Edwards VC carried a wreath of Flanders poppies and evergreen in the shape of the Victoria Cross, which had been intended to serve as a souvenir of the House of Lords Dinner. It now bore the message: ‘In affectionate memory from brother VCs of Leeds, who sorely missed their comrade at the Prince of Wales’s dinner, whence this emblem was brought for him.’
The service was held at St Clement’s and was attended by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leeds, the Chief Constable and a squad of police. Raynes was buried at Harehills Cemetery, Leeds (Section H, Grave 11). A firing party was provided by the West Yorks Regt and the Last Post was sounded. The cemetery gates had to be closed because of the crowd of an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 people who had come to pay their respects.
The fund begun by the Sheffield Telegraph was kept open to the end of the week in which it was begun, and had reached £300 by the day after Raynes’s death. The proceeds were handed over to his widow and two sons. Raynes’s story appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post in August 1972 following the discovery of an unknown VC portrait. It was finally established that it was of Sgt-Maj. Raynes. His daughter-in-law, who held his VC at that time, asked that the picture be forwarded to the regimental museum. His VC is now held by the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich.
While researching the First World War, West Yorkshire Policeman PC Anthony Child discovered that Raynes’ grave had fallen into disrepair. Following a complete refurbishment of the impressive headstone over the plot, a ceremony of rededication was held on the 13 November 2008, officiated by the West Yorkshire Police Chaplain.
The name of Battery Sergeant-Major Raynes appears on the VC Memorial plaque in Leeds.
J.L. DAWSON
Hohenzollern Redoubt, France, 13 October
No. 91608 Cpl J.L. Dawson of the 187th Field Company RE won his VC during the second gas attack to retake the Hohenzollern Redoubt by the 46th. Div. The British trenches were full of men but regardless of very heavy fire Dawson climbed up onto the parados, and walked to and fro along the top of the trench in order to be better able to give directions to his own sappers who were preparing gas cylinders for the attack, and also to clear the infantry out of the sections of trench that were choked with gas. He found three leaking gas cylinders, which he rolled away to a distance of some 16 yards and then fired bullets into them in order to release the gas. All this was conducted under heavy fire from the enemy and the fumes from the gas. It was evident that but for his courage and presence of mind many British troops in the trench would have been gassed. His action earned him a Victoria Cross which was gazetted on 7 December 1915.
James Lennox Dawson was born on Christmas Day 1891 at Tillycoultry, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, home of his cousin James Dalgleish Pollock who also won a VC a little over a fortnight before Dawson (see page 214). James Dawson was educated at Alloa Academy and Glasgow University, eventually gaining a BSc degree in chemistry. He became a teacher and was teaching at a school in Govan when war broke out. He joined the 5th Bn, Scottish Rifles (the Cameronians), on 5 November 1914. He trained with the 2/5th Bn, Scottish Rifles, until early spring 1915 when he joined the 1/5th Bn, Scottish Rifles (19th Bde, 6th Div.) in trenches at Bois Grenier near Armentières. In May 1915 Dawson, on the strength of his degree in chemistry, was ordered to join the Special Brigade RE, then being formed near St Omer, to conduct gas warfare against the Germans. He was compulsorily transferred to the RE, much against his will.
After winning the VC at the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915, he continued to serve in France. He was made a temporary second lieutenant in the RE, and in 1916 was wounded on the Somme, after which he served at home and in the USA. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant on 27 August 1917.
Dawson remained in the Army after the war, becoming a lieutenant in the Royal Army Education Corps in 1920. He was present at the garden party given for VCs at Buckingham Palace on 26 June that year and attended the ceremony at the Cenotaph on 11 November. On 1 April 1921 Dawson was promoted to captain, and later became staff captain on 1 October 1924. In the same year he left for India aboard the SS Marglen, landing at Bombay in January 1925. He transferred to the Indian Army Ordnance Corps in 1929 and was Deputy Assistant Director, Ordnance Services, Army Headquarters, India, from 1938 to 1940, Assistant Director from 1940 to 1941 and Liaison Officer with the India Supply Mission in the USA from 1941 to 1946. He retired with the rank of colonel in 1948, and moved to Eastbourne.
He attended the VC Centenary Review on 26 June 1956 and was present at the first and second dinners of the VC and GC Association at the Café Royal, London, on 24 July 1958 and 7 July 1960. In 1962 he attended the Lord Mayor’s banquet at Mansion House and Queen Elizabeth II’s garden party for VCs, both given on 17 July. The following day he joined fellow VCs at the third dinner of the VC and GC Association.
James Lennox Dawson died at his home, 9 Hartfield Road, Eastbourne, on 15 February 1967, aged 75 years, and he was cremated at Eastbourne Crematorium. His VC was bequeathed to Glasgow University.
C.G. VICKERS
Hohenzollern Redoubt, France, 14 October
The fighting for the Hohenzollern Redoubt had been fierce since the start of the Battle of Loos and although the British gained sections of it they never had full control of the strongpoint and were ousted on 3 October. Lt (Temp. Capt.) C.G. Vickers was in the 1/7th (Robin Hood) Bn, Notts and Derby Regt (the Sherwood Foresters). His battalion was moved forward to the British front line as part of the 139th Bde’s supporting role in the 46th (North Midland) Div.’s attack to recapture the Hohenzollern Redoubt, which was launched on 13 October.
On 14 October at 17.30 hours Capt. Vickers and fifty men of D Coy, 1/7th Sherwood Foresters, were ordered forward to the redoubt to relieve the exhausted bombers under Capt. Warren, also of the 1/7th, in ‘Little Willie’ Trench. This was accomplished and Vickers took charge of the bomb-fighting at the barricade at the north-west end of the redoubt. He had only a few bombers among his men, nearly all of whom were soon killed or wounded. With only two men left to hand him bombs, Vickers held the barricade for several hours against heavy German bombing attacks. During this time Vickers ordered a second barrier to be built 30 yards down the trench behind him. This effectively cut him off from support but his courageous stand enabled his men to complete the second barricade. He held the first position for a considerable time on his own before eventually falling, severely wounded, when the barricade was blown in. For this retention of the British hold on the Hohenzollern Redoubt, for which ‘he was, during his occupancy, personally and solely responsible’, Capt. Vickers was awarded the VC, the details of the action appearing in the London Gazette on 19 November.
Charles Geoffrey Vickers, the son of Charles Henry Vickers, a Nottingham lace manufacturer, and Jessie Ann (née Lomas) of Leicester, was born in Nottingham on 13 October 1894. He was educated at Bramcote preparatory school, Sidney House, Oundle School, and Merton College, Oxford. Prior to going to university, Vickers spent January to April 1913 in Germany, studying the language. He entered Merton College in October 1913 reading for Honour Moderations and ‘Greats’ having won a Classical Exhibition
. He played rugby football for both Oundle School and Merton College. He served five years in the OTC, gaining Certificate A, and was promoted to sergeant. He received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 1/7th (Robin Hood) Bn, the Sherwood Foresters, from Oxford University OTC.
He left for France with the battalion on 25 February 1915, seeing action in Belgium, mostly at Ypres, until September when he was involved in the Battle of Loos where he won the VC on 14 October, the day after his 21st birthday. He was hospitalized in England and was decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace on 15 January 1916.
Later, on 1 June 1916, he joined the Reserve Bn for light duty, and was promoted to captain on 29 August 1916, but he was not passed fit until 15 September. Vickers left England on 23 September to rejoin his former unit, but was recalled from France on 20 February 1917 as an instructor, and later as company commander, in the 19th Officer Cadet Bn.
VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front Page 23