Honour of the heroes

THEY are the men whose courage helped shape our nation. Without them, our history and the lives of all of us would have been different.

They are the 1,355 men of all ranks who, through 150 years of wars, have won Britain's highest military honour: the Victoria Cross.

They range from Bombardier Thomas Wilkinson, the first Yorkshireman to receive the Victoria Cross, for his courage during the Crimean War in 1855, to Private Johnson Beharry, who received his medal last year for outstanding courage in Iraq in 2004.

This week, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross this year, the Royal Mail launched a set of stamps celebrating those who won the VC.

Each of the six stamps shows a different recipient of this prestigious medal, along with a summary of the courageous act for which it was won.

York D-Day veteran Dick Bowen, 80, understands more than most the extraordinary courage it takes to win a VC. He took part in the D-Day landings as an 18-year-old with 69 Brigade, alongside Sgt Major Stanley Hollis, the only man to win a VC that day.

Dick vividly remembers his terror as he plunged into the shallow waters and waded up on to Gold Beach, bullets whizzing past. "I was petrified," he says.

Everyone who took part in the landings that day was a hero, Dick says. 69 Brigade had served throughout the war. They were battle-hardened veterans of Dunkirk, Africa and the invasion of Sicily.

"I was a young lad put amongst a group of men like that," he says. "They were my absolute heroes: battle-hardened men, hard, but soft. They carried you through. It was, Stick with me, lad, we'll see you're all right'."

Winners of the VC were the bravest of the brave, Dick says, and it is only right we should honour and remember them.

Fellow York veteran Ralph Peacock agrees.

Mr Peacock, 74, was stationed at Wattisham during his national service and the station commander had been awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War.

The courage of those who fought for their country must never be forgotten, he says.

"The world is still in conflict," he said. "All around the world men and women are still putting their lives at risk and no doubt there will be actions of bravery just the same today as there were 150 years ago. It's right that they should be remembered."

Mr Peacock has done his bit to ensure they are. In the past 15 years, he has trawled cemeteries to track down the graves of veterans.

He visited cemeteries in France and Belgium and studied records in London to learn more about his father's role in the First World War.

Recently, he has visited towns and villages in and around York to study their war memorials.

At the moment, he is campaigning to restore the grave of Bombardier Thomas Wilkinson.

Born in Marygate in 1831, Bombardier Wilkinson - who received the VC for his courage at the Battle of Sebastopol in 1855, during the Crimean War - died aged 55 and is buried in York Cemetery.

It is sometimes hard to fully understand what the men who won the Victoria Cross went through, Mr Peacock admits.

What is for sure is that we owe them an eternal debt of gratitude.

"If you had to describe a typical Yorkshireman, you'd say he was like Stan Hollis"

TO THIS day, Dick Bowen still wonders how he found the courage to make it through the hell that was D-Day.

He was 18 when he landed at Gold Beach with 69 Brigade.

It wasn't simply the storm of bullets whipping past as the men struggled through the shallow water from their landing craft to the beach that made it so frightening, he says. The shells and mortar fire caused far more casualties.

So how did he get through it?

"Your mind turns off," he says. "When I think back to it now, I think Why was I not absolutely terrified?' I was petrified - but not to the extent that I couldn't move."

The comradeship of older, more battle-hardened members of the Brigade helped. They were men who had retreated from Dunkirk, fought in the deserts of North Africa and taken part in the invasion of Sicily.

They were heroes, one and all.

"I was a young soldier put among a group of men like that," he says.

"Going into action with men like that was so exhilarating, so exciting. They carried you through. I think I might have gone off my head if it had not been for them. They were battle-hardened men, hard, but soft. It was Stick with me, lad, we'll see you all right'."

It wasn't only comradeship that kept soldiers like him going, however. It was a burning sense of duty - and a feeling that there was a job to be done.

He didn't think he would survive the invasion, Dick says, but he knew that ultimately Britain would win against the Nazis.

"I was part of a team who were going to settle those bullies," he says.

Nothing he did could compare with the courage of the soldiers who won the VC, however.

The only man to win a VC on D-Day was Yorkshireman Stanley Hollis, who was also with 69 Brigade.

The Middlesbrough-born sergeant major won his medal for conspicuous bravery during the landings.

He and his men were pinned down by machine gun fire. Hollis spotted the pill box from which the fire was coming, rushed the position, and threw a grenade in, killing the two machine-gunners inside and capturing a number of other German soldiers.

Later that day, he rescued two men trapped in a house that had been destroyed by German field guns.

Dick didn't know Sgt Major Hollis at the time, but got to know him afterwards.

What was he like? A typical dour Yorkshireman, Dick recalls. "If you had to describe a typical Yorkshireman, you'd say he was like Stan Hollis."

And what was it that drove men like that to carry out acts of such selfless courage?

Absolute pride in his duty, and a burning hatred for those who could do what the Nazis had done, Dick says.

Ralph Peacock has helped The Press compile a list of soldiers from our area who won the VC.

Thomas Wilkinson
THE bravery of Thomas Wilkinson was honoured as recently as 2004 when four Royal Marines who were travelling around the world on the Respecting Valour Tour held a service of remembrance at his grave in York Cemetery.

Bombardier Wilkinson won his medal at the Battle of Sebastopol, in 1855, during the Crimean War.

Born in Marygate, in 1831, he became the 14th person to be awarded the Victoria Cross when he received his medal from Queen Victoria in Hyde Park on June 26, 1857.

Aged 23 and serving with the Royal Marine Artillery of HMS Britannia at Sebastopol, Bombardier Wilkinson had risked his life as he repeatedly carried sandbags under a heavy barrage of Russian fire to rebuild gun emplacements.

He was commended for "gallant conduct in the advanced batteries in placing sandbags to repair the work under a galling fire".

He was also awarded the French Legion of Honour, the British Crimea Medal, with clasps for Balaklava, Inkerman and Sebastopol, and the Turkish Crimea Medal. He was invalided' out of the Royal Marine Artillery in 1859 and returned to York, where he lived in North Street and became a sand merchant. He died in 1887, aged 55, and was buried with full military honours.

Bertram Best-Dunkley
THE second York-born soldier to receive the Victoria Cross was Temporary Lieutenant Colonel Bertram Best-Dunkley. Born in 1890, he joined the 2/5 battalion Lancashire Fusiliers.

He was awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War at Wieltje, Belgium, on July 31, 1917, when he led a successful counter-attack after beating off an enemy advance. He died from his wounds on August 5, 1917 and is buried in Mendingham Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Harry Blanshard Wood
Corporal Harry Blanshard Wood, of 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, was born in Newton-on-Derwent in 1881 and was awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War on October 13, 1918, at St Python France. Corporal Wood took command of his platoon when his sergeant was killed during an attempt to cross the River Selle. Sheltering behind a large brick, under withering sniper fire, he covered his men while they made the crossing. Subsequently promoted to Lance-Sergeant, he died in 1924.

Tom Dresser
Private Tom Dresser, of the 7th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was born in Pickering in 1892. He was awarded the Victoria Cross on May 12, 1917, at Roeux, France, where, despite having been wounded twice and being in great pain, he carried a vital message from battalion headquarters through to the frontline trenches. Private Dresser died in 1982.

Alan Richard Hill
Lieutenant Alan Richard Hill, 2nd Battalion the Northamptonshire Regiment, was born in Northallerton in July 1859 and was awarded the Victoria Cross at Laings Nek, South Africa in January, 1881, for his heroic actions in rescuing wounded men under heavy fire. He died in Thirsk in 1944.

Archie Cecil Thomas White
Captain Archie Cecil Thomas White, 6th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his valour in October, 1916, at Stuff Redoubt, France. He held the Redoubt for four days and nights under heavy fire and against several counterattacks, despite being short of supplies and ammunition. He died in Surrey in 1971.

Major Herbert Augustine Carter
There is a memorial in York Minster to Major Herbert Augustine Carter, 101st Grenadiers Indian Army, who was awarded the Victoria Cross at Jidballe, Somaliland, when "outnumbered by 30 to one he rode back alone over 400 yards to rescue a badly wounded private". He died in Mwalo Mdogo, East Africa, in 1916.

Alfred Atkinson
Another connection with the Victoria Cross and the City of York is to be found on the Yorkshire Regiment (The Green Howard's) memorial on the traffic island at the junction of Skeldergate Bridge and Tower Street, where the name of Sergeant Alfred Atkinson VC is shown. Sergeant Atkinson, of the 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was born on January 6, 1874, in Leeds. He died on January 21, 1900, and is buried near Paardenberg, South Africa.

He was awarded his VC for his valour during the battle of Paardenberg in the Boar War, February 18, 1900. Sergeant Atkinson went out seven times under heavy fire to obtain water for the wounded. On the last attempt, he was shot in the head and died on February 21.