Samuel Harvey
Samuel Harvey 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.
Details
He was 34 years old, and a Private in the 1st Bn., York and Lancaster Regiment, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 29 September 1915 in the "Big Willie" Trench near the Hohenzollern Redoubt, France, during a heavy bombing attack, more bombs were urgently required and private Harvey volunteered to fetch them. The communication trench was blocked with wounded and reinforcements and he went backwards and forwards across open ground under intense fire and succeeded in bringing up 30 boxes before he was wounded in the head. It was largely owing to his cool bravery in supplying the bombs that the enemy was eventually driven back.
Further information
| VC hero gets headstone 40 years on from pauper burial By Peter Birkett |
File:Eletel.gif "The Daily Telegraph" Sunday 20 Aug 2000 |
A FIRST World War Victoria Cross winner who fell on hard times and was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave is to be honoured with a headstone 40 years after his death. The grave of Sam Harvey, who won his medal for extraordinary bravery at the Battle of Loos in 1915, was located by Chris Matson, a teacher and military historian, in a grass-covered plot at the Old Ipswich Cemetery, Suffolk.
On September 29, 85 years to the day after his heroic action, his relatives, representatives from his former regiment and members of the Western Front Association who have raised money for the memorial will dedicate it at a graveside ceremony. They will also appeal for information about the whereabouts of the medal, now worth tens of thousands of pounds, that the old soldier mislaid.
Harvey was a 34-year-old private in the 1st Bn York and Lancaster Regiment during the bitter fighting near the Hohenzollern Redoubt at Loos. When his unit's trenches came under heavy bombardment and were blocked by casualties, he volunteered to dash backwards and forwards across open ground and under intense fire to bring up 30 boxes of shells before he fell, wounded in the head. According to his citation, gazetted on November 18, 1915, "it was mainly due to Private Harvey's cool bravery in supplying bombs that the enemy was eventually driven back".
He was presented with the VC at Buckingham Palace by King George V on January 24, 1917. As the monarch pinned the medal to his chest, Harvey turned towards the Queen who was standing by the King's side, grinned broadly, winked and said in a loud voice: "Mine's a pint." The Queen's reaction was not recorded.
Harvey went on to see continued service on the Western Front where, by 1918, he had been wounded three times and walked with a limp. When demobilisation came, however, the good times did not. Harvey scratched a living as an odd-job man, digging people's gardens, and worked as an ostler in Ipswich. He married a widow, Georgina Brown, but his most enduring love was for the bottle.
It is not known when or how Harvey lost his VC. Col Geoffrey Norton, the vice-president of the York and Lancaster Regimental Association, said: "There are a number of stories. One is that he swapped it for a pint, another that he fell over drunk returning home one night and dropped it.
"We are very anxious to know where it is because we have a record of every one of the other 12 VCs won by members of the regiment. If anyone knows anything about it, we would dearly like to hear from them." Brian Simpkin, a medal specialist with the London dealer Spink & Son, said that the VC would be worth £40,000 to £50,000, if sold with Harvey's other medals, which included the Cross of St George of Russia and the French Legion of Honour. Harvey's great-nephew, William Harvey, said the medal "is believed to be back in England, probably in a private collection".
Edna Elvin, Harvey's 73-year-old niece, said the family was delighted that the grave is to be marked. "It was terrible there was no stone, but when he died we were all young, trying to bring up our children and make our way in life and there was no money." Despite this, at least 200 people attended his funeral in 1960, which was televised locally and covered by the local newspapers. "Then everyone went home and he was forgotten," said Stuart Bufton, the chairman of the Suffolk branch of the Western Front Association. "Now we are putting that right."
While he was alive, Harvey occasionally popped up at official VC functions but, said Mrs Elvin, he never talked about his medal or how he won it. "I don't think he realised how great an honour he had received." When he died, penniless in a former workhouse, nurses found his miniature VC under his pillow. "I have it now," said Mrs Elvin. "It is my proudest possession."
The medal
please update if you know where his medal is publicly displayed
References
- Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- VCs of the First World War - The Western Front 1915 (Peter F. Batchelor & Christopher Matson, 1999)
See also
External links
- Location of grave and VC medal (Suffolk)
This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission.