He married Miss Helen Tregoning Newton, daughter of Mr and Mrs A.H. Newton, of Harpenden, Herts, at St Andrew’s Church, Malden Road, London, on 21 March 1918. The following month, on the 5th, he returned to France for a third time. He was promoted to major and became second in command of the 1/Lincolns, a role which he held until the end of the war. He was again wounded, and was Mentioned in Despatches and won the Belgian Croix de Guerre while commanding a composite battalion in the defence of the Marne in June. He also saw action at Kemmel, on the Aisne and throughout the advance of the Third Army from August to November 1918. He was demobilized with the rank of captain (acting major).
After the war Vickers qualified as a solicitor and attended the VC garden party given by the King on 26 June 1920 and the House of Lords dinner on 9 November 1929. He was a partner in the firm of Slaughter & May from 1926 to 1945. His wife bore him a son and a daughter though the marriage was dissolved in 1934. In 1935 he married Ethel Ellen, youngest daughter of H.R.B Tweed; she bore him a son.
In the Second World War he was recommissioned in the Sherwood Foresters in 1940. From 1941 to 1945 he was seconded from the Army with the rank of colonel as Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Economic Warfare, in which role he was in charge of economic intelligence; he was also a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Chiefs of Staff.
He spent the years 1945 to 1947 as legal adviser to the National Coal Board and in 1948 became a board member in charge of manpower, education, health and welfare until 1955. He was involved in a variety of public and professional bodies including the London Passenger Transport Board, the council of the Law Society and the Medical Research Council. He was chairman of the research committee of the Mental Health Research Fund which he had helped to found, from 1951 to 1967. He was also an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His involvement with important bodies led to the publication of several papers and half a dozen books which explored the institutional frame of modern society.
Vickers enjoyed tennis and literary pursuits, and he was a keen sailor, owning several boats over the years. Shortly before the Second World War he had sailed competitively, coming second in the Fastnet Race. He was knighted for his services in 1946. Lady Vickers, his second wife, died in October 1972. He held the VC, the Croix de Guerre (Belgium), the US Medal of Freedom, the 1914–15 Star, General Service Medals for both world wars, and two Coronation Medals. Sir Geoffrey Vickers died at his home, The Grange, Goring-on-Thames, on 16 March 1982. The funeral was at Goring Free Church on 23 March and he was later cremated at Oxford Road Crematorium, Oxford. His military medals, including the Victoria Cross, are on display in the Sherwood Foresters Collection in Nottingham Castle. In the grounds of the Castle is the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Memorial to twenty Victoria Cross Winners where Charles Vickers’ name appears along with nineteen other VC winners.
KULBIR THAPA
South of Fauquissart, France, 25 September
The third, and last, Indian soldier to win the VC on the Western Front in 1915 was Rfn Kulbir Thapa, of the 2/3rd Gurkha Rifles; he won his award when his battalion fought at Piètre on 25 September. Part of Garhwal Bde, Meerut Div., the battalion was on the right of the line with the 2nd Leicesters on its left. The ground over which the attack took place was less than half a mile away from where both battalions had fought in the battle of Neuve Chapelle in March.
A four day artillery bombardment preceded the attack, supplemented by a gas attack. As this was the first time the British had used gas, two alternative plans of attack were in force: Plan A would involve the use of the gas while Plan B would not, instead relying on a concentrated artillery bombardment. During the course of the night orders changed from Plan A to Plan B and back again a number of times before Plan A was finally selected. At 04.45 hours a strong smell of gas was apparent among the British troops, and it was first thought that German gas shells were responsible; later it was reported that an enemy trench mortar shell had hit some gas cylinders in the Duck’s Bill, a section of trench projecting forwards from the British line some 400 yards to the right of the battalion. This gas discharge put out of action a number of the 3rd Londons who were holding the Duck’s Bill (see map on page 25) and also affected many of the battalion’s men in the support trenches.
When the British gas and smoke was released, most of the gas drifted along in front of the assaulting battalions, and did not affect the enemy. However, it hampered the assaulting troops and consequently the Gurkhas attacked wearing respirators. The battalion’s attack was led by No. 4 Double Coy, commanded by Lts Bagot-Chester and Wood. The two front lines were about 200 yards apart, and almost half of the Gurkhas’ advance was obscured by the gas and brown smoke through which they stumbled, but the moment the men emerged from this cover they were met by ‘a blizzard of bullets’. Very few of the double company gained the German trench. Lt Bagot-Chester was among the wounded.
However, Lt Wood and four men reached the German wire, which was uncut except for a small section on the left front of the battalion; these five men entered the enemy trench where, with the exception of one man, No. 2129 Rfn Kulbir Thapa, they were killed in hand-to-hand fighting. Kulbir, although wounded, managed to get past the German front line and still moving forward found a wounded private of the 2nd Leics between the first and second lines. He stayed with this man all that day and throughout the night, despite the man’s urging him to retreat and save himself.
Early the following morning there was a thick fog which enabled Kulbir to carry the wounded man back through the German front line unseen. Leaving the man in the shelter of a shell hole, he then returned to the German wire to rescue two injured Gurkhas, one after another. By now the fog had lifted and it was daylight. Kulbir went back to the British private and brought him back, carrying him most of the way, to the safety of the trenches held by the 39th Garhwal Rifles. Many of the wounded men managed to crawl back during the night and under cover of the fog, and they reported that the German soldiers had left their trenches early in the morning to go out and shoot and bayonet wounded men. This behaviour was confirmed by Lt Bagot-Chester, who himself was shot more than once as he lay wounded less than 20 yards from the German wire. Kulbir Thapa was recommended for the VC by the battalion’s commanding officer, and the recommendation was strongly supported by officers of the 39th Garhwal Rifles and the 2nd Leicesters. The London Gazette of 18 November 1915 published the VC citation.
Kulbir Thapa was born on 15 December 1888 at Nigalpani, Palpa, Nepal; he was a Thapa of the Magar clan. He enlisted in 1/3rd Gurkha Rifles, transferring to the 2/3rd Bn at the outbreak of war to complete its war establishment and arrived in France in September 1914. The battalion fought at Givenchy, 1914; Neuve Chapelle and Festubert in 1915 before the action of Piètre.
Once he had recovered from his wounds, Kulbir rejoined his battalion, then stationed near the Suez Canal in Egypt, on 4 January 1916, together with a draft of 203 men from France, many of whom were unfit for further active service. He was promoted Naik (corporal) on parade the next day. He served with his battalion for the remainder of the war, then returned to India and with the rank of Havildar (sergeant) was discharged from the Army in 1929. With another VC winner, Kulbir was photographed in native dress standing in front of the Gurkha Memorial at Gorakhpur, some time after the war. Kulbir Thapa died in Nepal on 3 October 1956; his Victoria Cross is displayed at the Gurkha Museum, Winchester. His name appears on the inside of the Chatri roof at the Commonwealth Memorial Gates near Hyde Park Corner
A great, great nephew of Kulbir Thapa, Surrenda Thapa, a chef in Jersey, CI has been fundraising towards the planning and construction of a High School with facilities for 100 students at Sulka Gandarki in the Seti River valley near Pokhara.
On 17 November 2010 in Pokhara, a residential home for ex-Gurkha soldiers or their widows was officially opened. The home, officially named after Kulbir Thapa by Lt-Gen. Sir Philip Trousdell, can accommodate twenty-six octogenerians and was funded by
UK donors in conjunction with the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
G.A. MALING
Near Fauquissart, France, 25 September
The only Victoria Cross to be awarded to a member of the RAMC on the Western Front in 1915 was won by Temp. Lt George Maling, attached to 12th Rifle Brigade (RB), 60th Bde, 20 Div., when the battalion took part in one of the diversionary attacks for the Battle of Loos, known as the action of Piètre.
The main attack on the morning of 25 September was by Garhwal and Bareilly Bdes, Meerut Div., with covering fire from the left flank. 12th RB, the nearest battalion to the left flank of Bareilly Bde, was in a position about 200 yards north-east of Winchester Road, which ran from Fauquissart to Mauquissart.
Parties of 2nd Black Watch (Bareilly Bde) advanced as far as the German second line and by 11.00 hours a company of 12th RB moved into the enemy front line and took over trench blocks previously established by 2nd Black Watch. A German counter-attack about thirty minutes later forced the company out of the trench-block owing to shortage of bombs and bombers; their withdrawal left exposed the flank of Bareilly Bde who, along with other parties of the brigade, were forced back to their original line.
Many casualties were inflicted during this counter-attack, adding to those suffered in the initial attack when the release of gas by the British had been a disaster, most of the gas blowing back into the British lines and causing heavy casualties. Maling was busy tending the wounded from early in the morning of 25 September and continued his work, often in very exposed positions, for over twenty-four hours. The citation for his VC, published in the London Gazette of 18 November, gave the details:
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during the heavy fighting near Fauquissart on 25 September 1915. Lieut. Maling worked incessantly with untiring energy from 6.25 am on the 25th until 8.00 am on the 26th collecting and treating in the open, under heavy shell fire, more than 300 men. At about 11 am on the 25th he was flung down and temporarily stunned by the bursting of a large high explosive shell which wounded his only assistant and killed several of his patients. A second shell soon covered him and his assistants with debris, but his high courage and zeal never failed him, and he continued his gallant work single-handed.
He received his VC from the King at Buckingham Palace on 15 January 1916.
George Allan Maling was born in Sunderland on 6 October 1888, the son of Edwin Allan Maling JP, MRCS, and Maria Jane Maling. He was educated at Uppingham School and Exeter College, Oxford, where he gained an honours degree in Natural Sciences. He continued his studies at St Thomas’s Hospital where in 1914 he qualified as MB, BCh, and in 1915 MRCS, LRCP. Maling was commissioned into the RAMC on 18 January 1915 and joined the 12th Rifle Brigade as medical officer, landing in France on 22 July 1915. After his award, he returned to France and was promoted to captain and Mentioned in Despatches during 1916 before working for a time in the Military Hospital, Grantham, Lincs.
On 5 May 1917 he married Daisy Mabel Wollmer, of Winnipeg, at Sutton, Surrey, and during this year he joined 34th Field Ambulance (11 Div.) and served with this unit during 1917 and 1918. After leaving the Army, Maling was appointed Resident Medical Officer at Victoria Hospital for Children, Chelsea, and later surgeon for outpatients at St John’s Hospital, Lewisham. Some time later he went into medical partnership, the practice based at Micheldever Road, Lee, South London, where he practised until his death, aged only 40, on 9 July 1929. Maling was buried in Chiselhurst Cemetery, Beaverwood Road, on 12 July, grave A 2017; a boulder forms part of the memorial. He is also commemorated on his parent’s grave in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, County Durham. Maling’s Victoria Cross is displayed at the Army Medical Services Museum, Aldershot.
A.F.G. KILBY
Near Cuinchy, France, 25 September
On the opening day of the Battle of Loos the 2nd South Staffs Regt, 6th Bde, 2nd Div., was in the front line at Cuinchy, immediately south of the La Bassée Canal. It was on the tow-path, between the canal and the railway embankment, some 200 yards from where Cpl O’Leary won the first VC of the year (see page 15), that Capt. Kilby led his men with such gallantry, resulting in his posthumous award.
The area was all too familiar to the battalion who had held positions near Cuinchy on a number of occasions before September. The battalion’s front of attack was from the brickstacks on its right to the La Bassée Canal on its left. A and B Coys were detailed for the right sector against the German-held brickstacks (which were not shelled by heavy guns in the preceding bombardment for fear of damaging the gas cylinders in the British front line), while C Coy’s advance was along the tow-path towards Embankment Redoubt, a strongly fortified position on the western edge of the Railway Triangle.
The British artillery bombardment began at dawn on 21 September in preparation for the assault. The men of 6th Bde were ordered to attack at 06.30 hours on 25 September, after the release of the poison gas. At 04.00 hours on the 25th the battalion received verbal orders from 6th Bde for the gas to be released at 05.50 hours, forty minutes before zero hour. At about 05.30 hours an RE officer in charge of the gas cylinders advised 6th Bde HQ that the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and he was unwilling to take responsibility for the release. After some delay 6th Bde sent orders for the gas to be released as per the original instructions; the gas cylinders were opened and it blew back into the battalion’s trenches; all the men were affected to some degree and many were rendered incapable of attacking.
The attack began. On the right A and B Coys attempted to go forward on the narrow paths between the many mine craters but were held up by fierce machine-gun and rifle fire and advanced no further than the nearer edge of the mine craters. D Coy, in support, managed to get a small party under 2/Lt Hall to the German line twenty minutes after the assault started. The left attack, by C Coy under Capt. Kilby, went forward along the tow-path at 06.30 hours, despite most of the men being badly gassed, and came under machine-gun fire from both sides of the canal. Kilby was hit in the hand almost immediately but still went on, urging his men on to the German wire where he was again wounded and his company now bombed continuously. Kilby’s foot had been blown off, but despite the pain he continued to fire at the enemy with his rifle. The attack failed and none of the men entered the enemy defences; at 08.00 hours orders were received to withdraw all assaulting men prior to an artillery attack on the enemy front line. This shelling, by heavy guns, did not trouble the front line defenders as the shells landed on the German second line. No subsequent attack was made.
After nightfall volunteers were sought to search no-man’s-land for wounded and when men of Kilby’s company were asked to search for their captain, forty out of forty-seven available men volunteered. Kilby’s body was not found and he was posted missing, presumed killed. He was recommended for the VC by Brig. Daly, 6th Bde, and the citation was published in the London Gazette on 30 March 1916. In a letter to Kilby’s parents, Brig. Daly wrote that Kilby had previously asked to be allowed to lead any future attack on the Embankment Redoubt as he was convinced the redoubt could be taken. In the brigadier’s opinion, when the attack began on 25 September, Kilby was very aware that the problems with the gas would prevent any success but he was determined to lead his men although this meant almost certain death.
During late October, in the same trenches, a white cross was seen in front of the Railway Embankment and the battalion who relieved the S. Staffs later sent a message which advised of the inscription on the cross. It read ‘For King and Fatherland. In memory of Lieut. King and Lieut. Hall and eight men of the South Staffordshire Regiment who died like heroes. Erected by OSPAR.’ Other accounts record that a cross was also erected to Capt. Kilby, Lt D.M. Williams and thirteen men of his company. It was apparently inscribed ‘For King and Country – died like heroes’. The existence of this cross has not been verified.
Kilby’s VC was presented to his father by the King at Buckingham Palace on 11 July 1916.
Arthur Forbes Gordon Kilby was born at East Hayes, C
heltenham, on 3 February 1885. The only son of Sandford James Kilby, Bengal Police, Customs and Salt Dept, and his wife Alice, of Skelton House, Leamington, he was educated at Bilton Grange near Rugby and Winchester College and entered Sandhurst after preparation at Frankfurt, Germany. He was commissioned into 1st Bn South Staffs in August 1905, promoted to lieutenant in October 1907 and to captain on 1 April 1910 when aged only 25. Kilby was transferred to the 2nd Bn in December 1910. A keen ornithologist and an accomplished linguist, he was fluent in Hungarian and German and when war began was learning Spanish. With his battalion he landed in France on 13 August 1914 and went into action shortly afterwards at Maroilles on 25/26 August where he was badly concussed by a shell. He was separated from his unit for some time and was later hospitalized with shell-shock, not returning to his battalion until 24 September when it was fighting in the Battle of the Aisne. Here he went out on a number of solo sniping forays and more than once got behind enemy lines to bring back valuable information.
The battalion moved north to the Ypres sector in October and on 1 November, when north-west of Becelaere, he led a counter-attack which earned him fulsome praise from his commanding officer. On 12 November Kilby was recommended for the MC when he, with Capt. Johnson, commanded a number of men who held a stretch of trenches all day after French troops on their left had retired and exposed the battalion’s flank. He was wounded in the right arm and lung by a bullet and sent to hospital in England and, although he did not fully recover the use of his right hand, rejoined his battalion in May 1915.
VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front Page 24