Canadian Medal of Honor.com

Stamps of Approval... in fact many of them!

1/28/2015

The last several columns have brought you a portion of the story of the Gaujot brothers who were the only brothers in the history of the Medal of Honor, dating back to Civil War days, who earned their medals in different wars. Several other sets of brothers also earned the medal, but each would earn his medal in the same war as his kin. While this story is not yet been fully told in this space, I am taking a break for a few blogs to tell of a few recent news announcements with regards to both the Medal of Honor and the Victoria Cross. After these I will return to the Gaujot heroes.

Regular followers of this space are aware of my almost daily habbit of using the GOOGLE "News" search filter to see what is happening in the VC and MOH worlds. Several stories have been discovered that need mentioning here in the days to come.

In past blogs I have brought you the story of the Canada Post release of the October 2004 sheet of Victoria Cross stamps. The occassion of the release was in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the famous October, 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. It was here that Toronto born Lt. (later Colonel) Alexander Dunn was awarded with the Victoria Cross. This was later pinned on his chest by HRH Queen Victoria at London, during the first ever presentation of about 60 Victoria Crosses. Dunn being on the first parade, was the first ever Canadian recipient. His VC was the ONLY VC awarded to an officer in that famous charge.

The image on the left is that of an actual Victoria Cross awarded to a Canadian, and held by our National War Museum at Ottawa. A museum highly recommended to be visited by all. The image to the right on that sheet of VC stamps is a depiction of the new Canadian version of the VC, which has replaced tthe English version... "For Valour" with the Latin... Pro Valore." It also bears the approval via signature of HRH Queen Elizabeth ll, and was unveiled in May of 2008.

Past blogs have also told of the sheet of stamps, above at right, honouring Nova Scotia born William Hall and released during Black History Month, back in February 2010. This son of a slave went on to become the first man of colour, not only from Canada, but in the entire world... to be awarded the Victoria Cross, for his heroism in 1857 during the Indian Rebellion. He was the recipient of Canada's third VC, and was the first Canadian naval man to be so awarded.

Having written about these men in the past, I was very interested to learn in days past that the post office in Australia has issued five new stamps effective about a week ago, in honour of five of that country's Victoria Cross recipients. The issue is part of the Legends program and is released in preparation of the 100th anniversary coming up of the ANZAC landings in Gallipoli, Turkey in WW l.

Holding the image of their VC stamps are, left to right... Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Daniel Keighran VC, Keith Payne VC, Mr. Doug Baird and Mark Donaldson VC. Mr. Baird accepted the honour on behalf of his late son Cameron who was awarded the VC posthumously after being killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013. With exception of Mr. Payne, the remainder all also earned VC's for heroism in Afghanistan. Payne's came from bravery in Vietnam back in 1969. Each will receive a 24 ct. gold likeness of their Victoria Cross stamp. They stand in front of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance.

The post office's Legends Awards, not only recognized the heroes of Australia, but also acts as a fund raising tool by the selling of various products. A portion of the money is donated to needy service members and families affected by war.

Chief Warrant Officer Payne, VC, shown at above right, was also honoured with an Australian stamp released back in 2000 and as shown below, at far right.

CWO Payne is of interest to me because of a Canadian connection... with a twist, if you will. And that twist involves US Colonel Lewis Millett, a Medal of Honor recipient for bravery in Korea. Regular readers of this space will remember that many years before he became famous Lewis served in the National Guard. When he learned that the US President was not going to send troops off to join in the war effort in the early days of WW ll, Lewis deserted. He then hitchhiked to Canada..not once but twice, and on the 2nd attempt enlisted with the Canadian Army.

After basic training in New Brunswick he was sent to the Ottawa area for secret training in a new invention then known as... Radio Detection And Ranging. Today we simply call this... radar. Then off to England he was sent, served with the Canadain troops there and when the US entered the war he switched over to the US forces again and went of to Africa and many acts of heroism there and in Vietnam and Korea resulting in many heroism medals including the Medal of Honor, and the Distinguished Service Cross.

Here is a picture of Colonel Millett many years after retirement, wearing a chest full of medals and the medal of Honor around his neck. A few years back I had the priviledge of meeting one of his sons and a daughter-in-law in California. It was unfortunately at a sad occassion. The funeral of Lewis at Riverside Narional Cemetery. While there, among many stories was one of their favorites. It was that whilst the US did not allow the wearing of foreign medals, Lewis, being the fellow he was, made up his own rules. Under his chest of ribbons, fastened by velcro were two of his favorite ribbons. Those issued for his 1941/2 service with the Canadian Army. The middle picture is an image of Canadian Volunteer Service Medal complete with clasp for overseas service. At the right is the British Commonwealth's 1939-45 War Medal. It would be the ribbons from these two that would be secreted below a very large gouping of US ribbons or miniatures.

The family had another favorite story about their hero father. It was that Lewis often made it well known, that the talents he needed to conduct the bayonet charges in Korea, were not learned during US...but Canadian basic training. This same talent was dircetly put to the test in battles that ultimatley resulted in his being awarded first the Distinguished Service Cross and within weeks the Medal of Honor.

Yet another was Lewis's fond bragging often that he was the only Coolnel in US history to be charged and convicted of desertion and then go on to earn the Medal of Honor.

On Sunday I will tell you how this all comes together.

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Awaiting some info on a special column. This should appear by Wednesday night. cheers!

1/25/2015

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Part three of the story of the incredible hero brothers Tony and Julien Gaujot, the only set of 7 (or possibly 8) sets of brothers earning the Medal of Honor, who did so in DIFFERENT wars!

1/19/2015

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The first and second articles about the brothers told of the US birth and a move with parents to the Belleville Ontario area in their youth where their father was in great demand for his minning expertise. A sister was born while the family was in Ontario. In recent days it has been learned that there were in fact 5 brothers, possibly all US born, and of which two of course were the medal recipients. Also just learned and being investigated is that there was a 2nd sister ...possibly also Canadian born. The second blog told a little about Antoine (Tony's) entering the military, having soon being charged with and later acquitted for the murder of a Private in his regiment. He then served during the Philippine Insurrection where his bravery resulted in his being nominated for commissioning and also for the receiving of the Medal of Honor. An award that would take about a dozen years to be approved and awarded.

The two blogs left off with the story of service resulting in the medal in the Philippines during the Battle of Payne, aka the Battle of San Mateo, in December of 1899. Anthony would also be at the front during fighting in the islands at Montalban, Angono de Bay, San Iisdro and at Palanan.

Sick and wounded reports for his unit, the 27th Infantry, would later show that Tony suffered from malaria fever for days in May, Aug, Sept and October of 1900. That same year began with the mid January nomination for the Medal of Honor. But four months later things went bad for Tony.

While detail seems quite scarce so far, information briefly reveals that in May of 1900 Tony was, for a second time, charged with murder and court marshalled under the terms of Section 62 of the Articles of War. This was the same section he originally faced at trial and received a later acquittal for, some 18 months earlier. It seems that this time there was some eliment of guilt determined, yet the punishment was only limited to loss of one month's pay.

And a few weeks later he was actually promoted to Sergeant!

In February of 1901 Tony's services came to an end and he was released as no longer needed at the Islands. The rest of his unit were also released from further duty three months later. The trail of Tony seems elusive for the next decade. It is believed that he was summoned to the White House, possibly in February 1911 for a formal ceremony in which President Taft probably pinned the Medal of Honor on his chest.

The next we here from Tony, he is fighting on US soil as a civilian. It was in Kanawha County of West Virginia in a 15 month battle, literally, and known as the "Paint Creek and Cabin Creek War."

It all started in the days leading up to April of 1912 when the major state wide occupation of coal mining pitted (pardon the pun) the owners against the miners in many of the 96 mines employing over 7,500 miners.

Paint and Cabin Creek form two of the 3 sides of a triangle and are located about 30 miles south of Charleston W Va., and some 670 miles to the south west of Washington DC. (Shown on the maps to the left.)

Here, non unionized workers went on strike for higher wages. Union men in the same state and profession were getting 2.5 cents more per ton of coal brought to the surface. The equalization of wages would have meant a cost to the mine owners of about 15 cents per worker per day.

But money almost seems to have been the least of the miners' concerns! Demands for better working conditions resulted in many of the louder voices being silenced by being blacklisted from future mine working. The men were not allowed to congregate to discuss their issues. Even in the towns..really owned by the politics and money of the mine operators, and thus the policing etc poorly disguised, resulted in ordanances disallowing men to gather in groups of three or more, and thus stiffening their rights of free speech, and lots more caused disenchantment with working conditions. Men were bullied, forced to buy their tools and supplies from company stores at the mines and in the towns, and even for some time the mines created their own form of money for wages, exchangeable of course only at their stores. Stores with supplies overpriced to boot. Those failing to buy at the stores were fired. The companies even brought in scab workers and beatings or muggings were daily events.

While violence was not the rule of the day in the earlist days of the strike it soon escalated to the point that both sides became armed... and heavily, not only with pistols and rifles capeable of being used by snipers but even with Colt machine guns brought in by the owners. This of course by way of over 300 armed guards hired by the well known strikebreaking men hired and trained as goons under the name of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. One that braged that it had illiminated unionization in many parts of the state and others, were men soon became too afraid to organize.

The mines' private armies, aka the detective agency, hired former military men who were well versed on stopping insurgents..no matter the cost. These men would actually operate mini forts around some of the mines complete with high towers topped with big search lights to detect anyone approaching. Apparenetly nine Colt machine guns, capeable of firing off over 300 rounds per minute, were brought in by the detectives and regularly used to sweep the grounds outside of the mines. Whenever armed workers were suspected hiding in the brush waiting to let off a few rounds, the Colts would open up on them.

And into all of this we find Tony Gaujot. He was employed by Baldwin-Felts and in fact was one of the three ring leaders and known to have repeatedly operated one on the Colts. Some details can be found on the net about him and the strikle including the cute comment that he"had wounded more than one milk cow with his MG. "

The private armies even operated a "train," probably several vehicles hitched togehter.. that would drive through the small tent cities set up to house workers. During the strike another way of abusing them was to force them to abandon the tents, their temporary homes, homes owned by the mine operators. Men would fire their rifles and machine guns into the tents from vehicles like this, known as the "Bull Moose Special."

This and other violence caused the Governor of the State to declare marshall law, then cancel it twice. Ultimately he had to send in about 1,200 state troopers to halt things after almost a year and a half of violence... and about 50 deaths..from both sides. In the process thousands of weapons from both sides were also seized. After well over a year of violence both sides settled on more fair treatment all around.

We next here from Tony after he again rejoins the army during the Great War, but more on that next week.

Bart

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Due to 8 hours of no power, today's blog will now appear on Monday night.

1/18/2015

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Most unique set of brothers, face the enemy in several wars, charges of murder and yet both earn Medal of Honor for heroism!

1/11/2015

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Prior to yet another bad spat with the asthma, I started to bring you the story of the famous Gaujot brothers, Antoine (Tony) and Julien.

These brothers were most unique as a set of brothers earning the Medal of Honor. There are at least seven known sets that earned the medal. Two are not often found in lists because it seems to hard to admit their medals were illegally taken from them, as noted in past blogs. But the Gaujot heroes are unique for several reasons. First perhaps is that while in all of the other sets both brothers earned their medals in the same war. Second, the Gaujot medals and only one other set of brothers earned their medals in wars other than the Civil War. In the Gaujots' case, medals were awarded for heroism recognized in actions during the Philippine Insurrection and the Mexican War.

Ironically the only other non CW brother medals combination also had Canadian connections with the Nova Scotian born Miller brothers, oft covered in this space. They were the only brother set in the Spanish American War to be so honoured.

Last blog I started to introduce the complicated story of the Gaujot brothers with the family being in Ontario for about a decade in the 1880's. In that blog I managed to mispell the family surname and also that of sister Clothilde who was born at Belleville. Sorry folks!

Early Ontario directories evidence that mining guru Ernest Gaujot, father of the boys, lived on N. Alexander Street in Belleville at one point and for some of the decade in question operated mines further north in the province. While Tony and Julien were in youth, the family moved to Ontario from the US. At Belleville the boys and sister Clothilde, probably attended public schools and in Julien's case possibly even the start of higher education before moving back to the US. The above image at left shows a Belleville Ontario map in the 1880's and the arrow points to N. Alexander Street where the family lived. A modern map, at above right, shows the same street.

About 1890 the family moved back to the US and in West Virginia father Ernest took on a position of incredible responsibilty with the largest coal/land owners in the state. By 1894 the family was living in the Mingo County area of W Virginia and about 35 km north west of Philadelphia... and some 675 south of Belleville Ontario as shown above. Ernest was still involved in mine engineering with a move a few years later to Lynchburg .

By 1896 Tony was registered as a student with the forerunner of today's Virginia Tech, the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. With the start of the Spanish American War in 1898, he left his schooling before completion, to enroll in the military. He was only 19 years old and needed his parents signature in order that he be allowed to sign up and obtained same. His brother had also attended the College and left also pre-graduation, years earlier. (The college would eventually educate seven Medal of Honor men, Antoine being the first and brother Julien the second of the seven recipients.)

Tony was enrolled in July of 1898 in the 2nd West Virgina Volunteer Infantry. In fact his brother Julien may have been the very fellow enrolling him and, as a Captain, was the officer commanding K Company were Tony was assigned. On enrollment it seems he was immediately given the rank of a First Sergeant.

It would be only five months into the service that a major event would affect Tony's career. It wouldn't be the only one!

It happened at Camp Wetherill, Greenville South Carolina. This was a temporary camp set up for preparation to possibly move off to war in Cuba. On 29 November 1898 Tony entered the tent space of one of his privates... Frank Scurlock. (possibly Spurlock) The apparent intent of the entry was for Tony to arrest the private for some unknown infraction. Details are most schetchy but the results were not. Tony had obtained a revolver from his captain's quarters, unknowst to the captain, and with the revolver entered the private's tent and shot the soldier in the neck. On 5 December Private Scurlock died.

Tony was arrested, charged with murder and court-marshalled. But something strange then happened. He was orginally charged under one section of military law which, if convicted could have meant a possible death sentence. But then the charge was slighly altered which meant the subsequent sentence upon conviction, would result in quite less sever punishment. Whilst held in confinement for 2 months with loss of some of his pay and rank, the court ultimately acquitted Tony of the charge, released him and returned him to rank.

Upon release he was given a short furlough and shortly after that, his entire regiment was mustered out of service and thus releasing both him and brother Julien from further military service with the 2nd W Virgina Volunteers.

Frank Scurlock lies buried at a cemetery in North Carolina. His grave marker curiously notes that he was serving in the Spanish American War yet his service was confined to US soil.

The grave marker, and the website publishing it make no reference to how this soldier came to an end in life!

At another internet site I found a partial list of the names of the men in the 2nd West Virgina. But it does not have any entry for a Frank Scurlock in K Company. It does however have one in K Company for a Frank SPURLOCK.

One might wonder if the name on the marker is accurate or not!

Some seven months later, in July of 1899 brother Julien again signed up with the military by enrolling in Company M of the 27th US Infantry. By the 31st of July he again enlisted brother Tony, this time with the rank of Corporal, and both were then serving at Camp Meade. The unit was in preparation to go to war during the Philippine Insurrection.

Prior to moving off, Tony got a leave in the San Francisco area and somehow managed to yet again draw unusual attention by getting himself shot in the foot. This was a non-military event but kept him away from his unit till mid October 1899.

Fourteen months later, and fighting over 13,000 km from the home front back in the US Tony found himself amongst soldiers tasked with driving the enemy out of a small town, in the Philippine Islands. It was December of 1899 and the fight would become known, both as the Battle of San Mateo and the Battle of Payne.

(The above map shows the incredible distance from the American Eastern coastline (above and to left of image) to the Philippine Islands indicated with the red marker above and to the right.)

The small town of San Mateo is found along the Marikina River and is about 18 miles north east of Manila. In 1899 is was occupied by enemy forces and presenting a major threat to important waterworks and wagon roads northbound. The Americans had to capture it and drive the enemy away. Plans called for several units to converge very close by along the Marikina but record breaking monsoons created major havoc for many of the troops. The river was overflowing and creating massive mud banks. All creating nightmares for the Americans having to make there way across to save the town. It fell to Tony's unit to find some sort of a ford to bring the Americans across the river and take the town.

Unable to find a ford, Tony decided to go for a swim. A very dangerous one across the very heavy currents and under close guard by more than 80 insurgents who were trying their best to kill him. Finally making his way across, swimming most of the way underwater, he crossed and found either one or, some say, two canoes. With their ropes literally in his mouth he managed to swim back to the friendly shore with the canoe or both trailing behind. It was a miracle that his only wound from this incredible bravery was a shoulder shot. From this event many troops eventually made their way across the river and the town was eventually captured.

Tony was later recommended for commissioning and still later for the Medal of Honor. The medal was granted about a decade later by President Taft and was based on this very event in the Philippines.

Pictured at left as a Captain and back with the 2nd West Virginia Infantry later on, is a image of Tony at a base camp.

To the right is a cute article from the 1950's reflecting on the brothers Gaujot and both being recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Note the towing with his teeth and mention of 2 canoes whilst most records including the official citation only mention one.

Note also the silly news statement that these two men were the ONLY brothers EVER to earn the MOH. And also the misnaming of the medal as a Congressional medal.

Note also the reference to the medals being WON... enough for anyone to stop writing, and so I shall till next week with more...much more to come on Tony's adventures. And then we will have a look at his equally curious brother Julien.

Bart

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My clunkety old medal detector (computer) makes a great sounding buzzing... (a hit from the net) ... yet again!

12/28/2014

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I'm back from a 2 week break for the holidays. The blogs will start back with the first of possibly three on the incredible story of not one..but two Medals of Honor.

There's an old saying that..."when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." There's another that says that ... 'if you want different results, don't keep doing the same thing over and over." And yet another that says that when searching the net... try using different filters or enquiries... do your search... from another angle... if you will.

Well, I have been trying off and on for some time to get some information on one of the heroes I am researching... in fact two of them... but not getting some of the info I really wanted. But then I thought... why search for a Robert when its the third most popular name in the US, or Smith, the most popular surname again in the US, with some 2.7 million across the nation. Maybe I should be searching for one of their kin, and within that, might get what I really want... stuff on a relative!

Using that line of thinking, I tried yet another search just a few days ago... and walla... the medal detector (my computer) gave me a most interesting link.

It led me to the father of the two boys. Boys who would grow up to be international heroes. Boys who would earn the Medal of Honor and become one set of at least seven, if not more sets of brothers that would earn the medal at some point in its history dating back to Civil War days. (The net likes to oft repeat the erroneous statement that there were only 5 sets of brothers who would ultimatley be awarded the MOH. Clearly there were at least two sets from that war so awarded, but later had their medals cancelled by illegal means. (The subject has been covered by many blogs on this site in the past.) The two removed from the lists in question were from Canada, as where more than a dozen others.

But today's blog is not about them. It will be about my recent discovery, and will be followed up by blogs on the two sons, Anthony August (Tony) Gaujot, and his older brother Julien Edmund Gaujot.

Routine internet searches tell of an American birth, but early migration to Canada and then a return to the US and later military service and the earning of their medals. My interest on these heroes begins with their connection to Canada. Most search results simply said they lived for a few years in Ontario. No dates or lengths of time or location in Ontario seemed to be available. Ontario is Canada's largest province to day with just over a million square miles. Back in the 1880's when the family lived there the population was at about 2 million. Searching for the boys was like looking for a needle in the haystack.

How do you find two guys in a population of 2 million? I got no internet hits telling of the boys lives in Canada. But then I decided to search for their father... Ernest and that's when details starting revealing themselves.

In April of 1884 the Select Committee of Geological Surveys, for the Dominion of Canada's House of Commons, issued a report and contains an entry regarding Ernest R Gaujot. It notes that at the time Ernest was a resident of Belleville Ontario, some 190 km east of Toronto and about 80 west of Kingston along Lake Ontario. It reveals that he was not only a mining engineer but the manager of the Philadelphia and Canada Phosphate Company and involved in the gold mines near Marmora in the same county of Hastings where he lived. It claimed he was doing this from 1880 till 1882. Two of the mines of interest were the Gattling and Tuttle mines. Gattling being rumoured to be possibly connected with a brother of the same named Gattling, and inventor of the early machine gun. (Two of these killing machines saw their first use in Canada during the Riel Rebellion of March 1885.)

By the early 1880's Ernest had accumulated many years in the mining business all over the world. He would describe one of Ontario mines in which he was involved in the Mamora area of Ontario, some 60 kms north of Belleville as being ..."one of the largest veins I have ever seen." In the above noted report he would note that about 200 miners worked the mines and some had shafts dug 200 feet deep, some even with lines running out a similar length, far below the surface. One gold mine was said to have a vein of from 8 to 24 feet and running over 10 miles in length. Others with iron deposits ran northward some 80 miles.

An 1881 national census had Ernest living in some form of a rooming house in the Marmora area and living with the owner, wife and 2 children, 2 servants and over a dozen mining employees. At the same time and through the 1880's various directories like Kimball's, City of Belleville, and Hastings all have Ernest identified as being a mining engineer and living in Belleville with one even noting he lived on N Alexander and another listing an address at the corners of Bridge and Pinnacle.

Further searches of the father's name led me to a link to a bio of the husband of a woman named Clotheline Gaudjot, who it identified as being born in Belleville in 1883, and that her father was indeed Ernest. Clothline and her bothers Antoine and Julien were all of public school, if not high school age during the decade it is believed their father was in Ontario mining and all may well have attended one of the 5 public schools, the central school, the lone high school, the girl's school in the case of Clothline or any of the handful of private schools in Belleville during the decade.

Probably in 1889 Ernest and wife moved their two American born boys and their Canadian born daughter to West Virginia.

The facinating story of the boys will be started in this space next Sunday.

On another note, please check the dates of blogs listed at the top right of this screen. Note the beginning..back in December of 2012. This month marks the beginning on the third year of these blogs.

I hope you are finding them not only informative, but enjoyable and a good read!

Bart

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The story behind the recent Ottawa unveiling of a Victoria Cross plaque

12/7/2014

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The last two blogs in this space were in a way...out of order. By this I mean that they ought to have appeared before several on a related subject appeared. Trouble is, the later story did not come to light for me till well into the earlier stories on the same subject. Sort of makes sense. I think!

The last two stories brought you the adventures of Reginal (Rex) Warneford.

He was born in Indian but at a very young age moved to England, signed up for service in the air wing of the navy and went on to serve in Europe during the Great War.

A few months after the Germans starting bombing of London by monstrous Zeppelin balloons, he would become the very first in the war to shoot one down during an air battle. Rex was flying his single winged, one passeger plane when he saw the enemy balloon that was the very balloon to drop the first bombs on England just a few months earlier.

He followed it for several hours till be could manouver above it, where it had no defences and then dropped his bombs on it. When it expoded his own plane was impacted by the sudden rush of air pressure which flipped his craft upside down. He went into a nose dive with loss of control, managed to still fly it some 35 miles into enemy territory, fix up minor repairs and set off again to fight more battles.

Within days he was directed to go to Paris where he was invested with the equivalent medal to the US's Medal of Honor. That very day he took a new plane up for 2 test runs, the first solo and the second with a reporter. Then the plane malfunctioned in mid air, and again flipped upside down. Both were thrown from the plane because it had no seat belts. Both died, the passenger immediately, and Rex enroute to hospital.

He was supposed to leave Paris for London where he was to receive his Victoria Cross, but instead, fate ended his life at the early age of 23.

Rex is shown above, as is a likeness of the plane he flew in the battle that destroyed the Zeppelin, also shown above.

Now setting Rex's story aside for a few moments, it was back in August of last year that the British government decided to honour Victoria Cross recipients from the Great War. A plan was to be a signifacant part of the overall 1914-18 remembrance of the 100th year since the first World War began.

Part of the plan was to have a contest to design a plaque for these great war heroes and have to have it unveiled on the very day, 100 years after the deed took place and the VC was later awaded for.

Past blogs told of the public outcry when the details began to emerge. A plaque was designed (called a paving stone) and the authorities went about creating hundreds on the pattern shown here. Trouble is, those who were making the decisions of the day blew it. They decided that only those who WERE BORN in England would get one of these plaques.

The public began to demand that the narrow parameters would exclude other VC heroes, born elsewhere but clearly as deserving of recognition that those born in England would get. Still others argued that some born in England went off to other countries, later earning the VC, but by the earliest of rules also did not qualify for this honour. Still others complained that all VC recipients were as deserving.

One of the strong groups advocating that the plans had to be revisited was the very regiment that earned 3 VC's and one of these was Rex from India. And thus I thought I ought to bring you Rex's story.

Another of the many coming forth argued that the same discrimination was being applied in the case of a 26 year old who moved to England also as a child and ended up being killed in battle leading his regiment in a charge. His name was Phillip Bent, and he was born at Halifax Nova Scotia in January 1891. He was apparently the youngest Lt.Col in the army of the day. But according to the rules, he was a hero that earned the VC posthumously but not important enough to be honored.

But that changed. Both he and Rex and several hundred more will all be honoured thanks to the watchfull eye of the British public.

As a result of all of the pressures to recognize the other VC recipients the plans were altered and about 175 other recipients from 11 countries are now being honoured by having their names added to one of the 11 plaques. Past blogs have brought you details of these plaques (shown above) and the unveiling on November 6th at Arlington National Cemetery of the plaque that came to the United States. It lists the unknow soldier of WW1 in France and then the names of four of the five Americans earning the VC as well. One not listed earned it many many years before the First World War. The remaining four, whist American born, all served in Canadian regiments. Past blogs brought news of the event at Arlington and my efforts to first tell of the event, then as learned, when it would take place and thirdly, when released, who would be doing the unveiling, to my contact at the Canadian Embassy at Washington and also to the current commanding officers of the four regiments in Canada that these heroes served with in the Great War.

On November 10th HRH Princess Anne and her husband, The Candian Minister of Veterans Affairs, the High Commissioner from London, our chief of the Defence Staff, veterans, dignitaries, military and the public gathered to witness the unveiling of the Canadian Plaque. It is mounted on the outside of the High Commission offices at Ottawa.

It should be remembered by all that in the Great War there were 628 Victoria Crosses awarded. That is almost half of all awarded sinec inception. But nevertheless with the millions who fought, it is indeed an honour for those proud enough to be on the receiving end. And of those 628... only 365 were born in England.

Certainly something to reflect on. And speaking of reflection I would like to end with this wonderful image.

It speaks volumes... despite being blurry!

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"Honoured by the King, admired by the Empire, but mourned by all," part 2 of the hero Reginald (Rex) Warneford, VC

12/2/2014

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Though not facing the obstacles that Rex faced in this story, I had a few that caused the delay in this update. Sorry but things happen. But moving on... I have made some slight changes to the first blog about Rex and you might want to revist it before reading today's.

Not mentioned in the last blog, the German Zeppelin company balloon that Rex was chasing was one of three sent on a bombing mission over London. Two turned back due to wind conditions while the third continued with the run. The three were communicating with each other by radio, and all of the conversations were being monitored by the Allies who lay in wait for their approach. On hearing of the two being returned they redirected their planes in the area of the expected routes. Rex was one of these and it was he who eventually found the "long green cigar shapped" object 25 miles away. It was the Zeppelin numbered..LZ 37.. and was the very dirigable that conducted the first bombing of London back in May of 1915.

As he approached he was driven back by machine gun fire from the gondolas below the balloon. He then headed off in another direction and unknowst to them circled back to follow from quite a distance. For two hours he followed and got his chance to attack, when the ballist was dropped and the balloon lowered to dip between the clouds and make her approach to home base in occupied Belgium.

Thanks to Rex she never made it home.

Here you can see several workers below the Zeppelin at its hanger in better days.

It was at about 2.30 a.m. on 7 June 1915 that Rex dropped his bombs and at least one hitting the Zeppelin that destoyed it. After his escape, crash landing, repairs and flying off again, he got back to his home base about 10.30 in the morning. By then the word was travelling all across the British Empire of the battle and how he became the first in the war to bring down an enemy dirigible in air combat.

On the 8th the British Admiralty sent him a telegram offering the congratulations of HRH King George V and further advised that he was soon to return to England as the King had awarded him the Victoria Cross. It would be just the second VC to an airman of the war, the first for bringing down a balloon, and the first in history to be announced via a telegram.

Soon word came that he was also being honoured by the King of France. He was to report to Paris to receive the French Legion d Honnour. This is the country's highest national award. From there he would pick up a plane destined for the military in England, fly it home and be invested with the VC whilst there.

On reporting to Paris he was greated by large crowds wherever he went, and of course stayed at none other then the world famous Ritz.

Twenty-three year old Reginald Warneford is shown here while in Paris and proudly wearing the Legion d Honneur. It was presented by France's Chief of the General Staff... General Joffre. In attendance was the country's Minister of Marine and no doubt many other dignitaries.

Since the medal could not be produced quickly enough for the ceremony, General Joffre, a proud holder of the medal himself, took his off his uniform and presented it to Rex. In doing so he noted that.." I shall be pleased to wear the one destined for you in its stead."

At the time of the photo Rex had been awarded his Victoria Cross but he had still yet to receive it in the days to come.

(Regular readers in this space will hopefully remember the story covered here about American born hero Colonel Lewis Millett, who also removed a very senior medal from his chest to present to another recipient who was awaiting his own medal's arrival many years ago.)

It was probably on the same day of the presentation that he later received control of the new plane destined for Britain. He would take it on two test flights. The first without incident. On the second he was asked to allow a accomplished American journalist in France at the time, to accompany him on another short flight. He complied and during that flight mechanical failures caused a wing to drop off. Soon after take-off it was flipped upside down and went into a spiral down to earth. Since there were no seatbelts yet installed, both men were thrown out of the plane.

The journalist was killed immediately. Rex lived to everyone's surprise but had major injuries. The very medal he was just presented was now imbedded through his jacket and into his chest. Rex died before he made it to the hospital. The above photo was no doubt one of the last taken of him.

Rex's coffin and that of the journalist were visited by thousands at a funeral in St Gordans. Rex's coffin carriage was draped with the largest of the wreaths including a massive one in the shape of an airplane, complete with left and right wings. And on one of these was a floral arrangement in the shape of the French Medal of Honour, while on the other an arrangement in the shape of the Victoria Cross. On the propellor was a card that contained the message... " Honoured by the King, admired by the Empire, but morned by all."

It was later decided that Rex Warneford's body needed to be shipped back to England for burial on Englishg soil and this was done before massive crowds said to number in excess of 50,000.

Rex's Victoria Cross was later presented by the Admiralty to his mother. In August the Admiralty also presented her with a duplicate of his Medal of Honour. Both appear above at either end of his medal group, now held in a British museum. Between these are his 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The VC is enlarged at right. Note the old blue ribbon that was used for all but the army until the Royal Air Force was created several years later. Since then all VC ribbons are the familar red (crimsom) colour.

On Sunday I will bring you the story of why this VC award is of historical significance to almost a dozen countries around the world.

Bart

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Twenty three year old takes out 27 enemy in WW1, earns highest of awards from not only one ... but two countries, killed in action 3 weeks later and given full miltary burial. But then not hero enough to honour!

11/24/2014

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It was just one day after the battle that the King of England awarded him the Victoria Cross. Surely one of the fastest of all VC awards. Two weeks later France awarded Rex their highest of bravery awards. But that was 99 years ago.

How things change! Millions patriotically recall the well know phrase... "Lest We Forget," annually. But back in Britain the government of many months ago, along with their bureaucrats ruled that this hero of 1915 no longer was entitled to be remembered whilst hundreds of others, so qualified, were. Worse yet, twenty others were also being thought to be excluded. But when the dust settled that number further increased to 175.

This incredible oversight in the initial planning was less of an oversight for the people of Britain. They spoke out to end this injustice. And Oh!, how they spoke out!

As a result of the backlash the British Government agreed to again remembered Rex and 175 more... including 70 Canadians. There will be even more to get the same honour, in plans yet to unfold.

Rex's story begins with him being born at Darjeeling in the Himalayan district of the state of West Bangal, India. His parents moved about a lot with various missions and in his early teens Rex received a college education in Britain. He then took an apprenticeship in the Merchant Marines and later worked with the British-Indian Steam Navigation Company. When the Great War broke out Rex was in Canada taking further education. He immediately sailed for England and soon found himelf enlisted in the Royal Navy Air Service.

Rex received pilot's training and soon found himself wearing the rank of a Sub Lieutenant and flying a single seater Morane Parasol. This was little more than an engine strapped on to a wooden frame concealed under flimsy canvas. A photo of Rex appears at left while an artist's rendition of him appears at right. Between can be seen a single winged plane of his type. (The Germans used the same model as can be seen with the symbol above.)

While Rex was in the midst of about a dozen solo flights, operating out of an airfield near Calais France,(#2 in map below) the Germans were experimenting with dreaded airships. Some of these were almost the size of a ball field... hundreds of feet in length and carrying upwards of 100,000 cubic feet of highly inflamable hydrogen to keep them afloat. They could simply sail with the wind currents and fly quite high, above that of most conventional warplanes of the day. Since radar was yet to be invented, and ground cannons could not be elevated to the height needed, an enemy airship could operate with safety from their enemy below. They would drop bombs... by hand... and then use ballast to quickly rise for yet mor esafety. This had terribble morale effdects below. Worse yet, the German practice of the day was becoming most indiscriminate. It was the dropping of bombs, not on strategic targets, but on the helpless citizens, and bringing a whole new panic from the skies over Britain.

On May 21 1915 the first of these Zeppelin airships sailed high over London (#1 in map below) and dropped its bombs leaving a trail of panic in the streets, massive damage, fires and injuries to the civilian population. When the job was done, because it was so high up, it simply made a swoop back into German occupied Belgium from whence it came. As it sailed over the area of Dunkirk (#3 on map below) its commander dropped some rather brazen cards to the populace below. Its printed message was... "You English, we have come and we will come again soon to kill or cure."

By June 7th Sub Lieutenant Reginald (Rex) Warneford had flown about a dozen solo flights. But that night would be his most important. And it almost was his last. It would be a night flight... his first ever. The mission of the four planes asigned was to attack one of the home bases of the Zeppelins at Berchem, just outside of Antwerp and some 50 km north of Brussels. (up and to the right of the arrow marked #5 and showing Ghent, in the map below)

Rex was having some control problems with his plane and as a result dropped out of the formation and thus separated from the other three planes. Things got quote interesting enroute and flying near Ostend, shown above at Arrow #4. (Ostend should ring bells with readers as it was in this and a nearby harbour that Rowland Bourke earned his VC and DSO in 1918.) Way off in the distance Rex saw a very long line in the sky and flew closer to discover that he had located the very German Zeppelin airship that had bombed London just a few weeks earlier. He was quite struck, on flying closer and discovering its massive size... some 510 feet long with two very large gondola's hung from its belly. Each being at least twice the length of his own plane. He would later be quoted saying that the balloon was so big that he felt he could have used it as a landing pad.

As he approached Rex discovered this was the German airship known as LZ-37 and based out of Gontrode. (#6 on map above.) Operators of the four heavy machine guns from the gondolas saw him coming and started to blast away with their heavy machine guns. He of course veared off to avoid being hit. The balloon immediately climbed from the 7000 ft elevation to about 13,000. Spending the next two hours following from a distance, Rex slowly managed to gain some height and was maintaining it when the balloon started to drop back down to the 7000 ft level near Ghent and probably to make a break through the clouds to descend back to its home base.

Rex now had to come up with a plan to destroy the balloon. He did not have any machine guns. But he did have a revolver. Not much help no doubt! And a carbine riffle..but all its ammunition was gone. And he of course had his bombs. Six of them weighing 20 pounds each. Since he was behind.. and now ABOVE the balloon, he had the advantage. The enemy's weaponry was BELOW the balloon and of no use for an attack from directly above. So Rex decided to shut off his engine to slow the plane down... drift over the airship and drop all his bombs. So he did so with most missing the target. But one didn't and the resulting explosion was devestating to all concerned. It blasted the enemy airship to pieces with parts going in all directions.

Twenty-seven of the twenty eight on board were instantly killed. One lived to jump at the 200 ft level and crashed into a roof of a nunnery near Gontrode, smashed through and landed in an unoccupied bed..and LIVED. So did Rex. By the skin of his teeth. He knew that as soon as any explosion happened he had to get the heck away as fast as possible. But with the engine off, and the concussion of the air impact on his plane so quick, he would later state.. "it lifted my machine and turned it over."

Finally getting it back on keel, Rex found that the controls were damaged from the impact caused by the massive impact of the air. With little in the way of control he managed to bring the plane down to a crash landing some 35 miles into German occupied territory near Priz Nez, on the outscirts of Brussels. (marked with the arrow #7 above) There some French smpathizers were stunned to see Rex climb out of the plane and as surprised to see that the only thing wrong was a separated fuel line which he rigged up using a piece of the tubing from his cigarette holder. The Frenchmen gave his some gas and his original plan to set the plane on fire was abbandoned. Managing to pull on the propellor several times without getting sucked into it, he got the engine going and the plane started to take off with him running along side and finally managing to swing into it. As that happen the Germans searching for him exited a break in the treeline, saw him and started shooting, but it was too late. He was by then airborne and flying back into history. .

This is an image of the German Zeppelin RZ-37. Rex's plane was half the length of the godolas shown suspended under this montrous balloon. The image on the right is an artist's rendition of the famous battle. It was the first time in the Great War that an enemy airship was destored in an air battle.

But Rex wasn't finished yet. More about his expoits on Sunday.

Bart

Stamps of Approval... in fact many of them!

Awaiting some info on a special column. This should appear by Wednesday night. cheers!

Part three of the story of the incredible hero brothers Tony and Julien Gaujot, the only set of 7 (or possibly 8) sets of brothers earning the Medal of Honor, who did so in DIFFERENT wars!

Due to 8 hours of no power, today's blog will now appear on Monday night.

Most unique set of brothers, face the enemy in several wars, charges of murder and yet both earn Medal of Honor for heroism!

My clunkety old medal detector (computer) makes a great sounding buzzing... (a hit from the net) ... yet again!

The story behind the recent Ottawa unveiling of a Victoria Cross plaque

"Honoured by the King, admired by the Empire, but mourned by all," part 2 of the hero Reginald (Rex) Warneford, VC

Twenty three year old takes out 27 enemy in WW1, earns highest of awards from not only one ... but two countries, killed in action 3 weeks later and given full miltary burial. But then not hero enough to honour!

Blog delayed till Tuesday...

Author;

Bart Armstrong

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