Harold Ackroyd

Harold Ackroyd VC, MC (18 July, 1877—11 August, 1917) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was educated at Mintholme College, Southport, then Shrewsbury School and finally Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Details

He 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 when the following deed took place for which he 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.

He was killed in action, Glencorse Wood, Ypres, Belgium, on 11 August 1917.

Further information

VC medal returned to family from Army Services Medical Museum in 1994.

The medal

The medal was sold to private buyer in 2004. The money from the sale has been used to endow four scholarships and an annual memorial lecture at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge at which Ackroyd received his medical training.

References

*Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
*The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
*VCs of the First World War - Passchendaele 1917 (Stephen Snelling, 1998)

ee also

The Medical VC's. Published by the RAMC Museum 1983

External links

* [http://www.barmy.co.uk/ramc/ackroyd.htm Captain H. Ackroyd]
* [http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ggbeatog.htm Burial location of Harold Ackroyd] "Belgium"
* [http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbackroy.htm News Item] "Harold Ackroyd's Victoria Cross sold privately"
* [http://www.pipl.com/directory/people/Harold/Ackroyd Harold Ackroyd] on Pipl Directory