VC Action: Harold Ackroyd VC, MC
(18 July 1877—11 August 1917) was 40 years old, and a Temporary
Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, British Army, attached
to 6th Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte
of Wales's) during the First World War.
The 6th Berkshires took part in the battle
at Delville Wood on 19th July 1916. The casualties included
more than 700 wounded. The fighting was confused and the wood
hard to search that there were difficulties of evacuating
the wounded. Captain Ackroyd "was so cool, purposeful
and methodical that he cleared the whole wood of wounded,
British and German as well." Much of this work was carried
out in the face of snipers and heavy shelling.
Such was Ackroyd's courage that no fewer
than eleven reports were filed by officers outside the 6th
Berkshires. A recommendation for the Victoria Cross followed,
but this was down-graded to a Military Cross. The award of
the MC was for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty
during operations. Ackroyd attended to the wounded under heavy
fire, and finally, when he had seen that all the wounded from
behind the line had got in, he went out beyond the front line
and brought in both allied and enemy wounded, although continually
sniped at.
Ackroyd came through the fighting physically
unscathed, but the strain took its toll and he was sent home
on 11th August 1916, suffering from nervous exhaustion. Passed
fit by a medical board in October 1916, he was back in France
the following month, rejoining his regiment in December.
In the spring and early summer of 1917 the
Berkshires were preparing for the Flanders offensive. Their
attack astride the Menin Road was recognised as one of the
most important and hazardous operations on the first day.
After initial success, the attack was checked almost everywhere
along the front, with enemy guns raining shells on Sanctuary
and Chateau Woods, causing huge casualties. By the end of
the day the Berkshires' casualties amounted 44 officers and
men killed, 182 wounded and 28 missing. Many of the wounded
lay out in the open at the mercy of enemy fire of every description
and to make matters worse heavy rain began to fall, quickly
turning the churned ground to a muddy slush.
The following deed took place for which Harold
Ackroyd was awarded the VC.
Between 31 July and 1 August 1917 at Ypres,
Belgium, Captain Ackroyd worked continuously, utterly regardless
of danger, tending the wounded and saving the lives of officers
and men in the front line. In so doing he had to move across
the open under heavy machine-gun, rifle and shell fire. On
one occasion he carried a wounded officer to a place of safety
under heavy fire, and on another went some way in front of
the advanced line and brought in a wounded man under continuous
sniping.
He was killed in action ten days later by
a sniper in Glencorse Wood, Ypres, Belgium, on 11 August 1917,
whilst in search of wounded soldiers.
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