WWI: Pitmen who won VC in same battle

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The amazing story of two Derbyshire men who won Britain’s highest gallantry award on the same day during the First World War is told by Vivienne Smith.

A delighted Private William Beesley (left) and Sergeant William Gregg after receiving their Victoria Crosses from King George V in 1918

Sergeant William Gregg was the first man to win the three principal medals for gallantry; the Military Medal, Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Victoria Cross. All won during the First World War

William Beesley during the Second World War. He won the VC in the First World War

The road from La Boisselle to Contalmaison near to where the 13th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade made their unsupported attack on July 10th, 1916 during the Battle of the Somme

Soldiers going over the top into No Man’s Land during the First World War

A SET of commemorative stamps is being produced by the Royal Mail this month to mark the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross.

The medal, which is Britain’s highest award for gallantry, was first instituted in 1856 during the Crimean War.

To date, there have been 1,355 recipients of this most coveted honour, 10 of whom were Derbyshire born and bred.

Two local lads even won the VC on the same day in the trenches of the First World War.

William Gregg, the older of the two, was born in Heanor on January 27, 1890. His father worked in the hosiery trade.

Young Bill attended Mundy Street School in the town before becoming a miner at Shipley Colliery.

At the age of 20, the young man wed his sweetheart, Sarah, but, after just four years of married life, the First World War broke out.

Gregg soon enlisted in the Rifle Brigade and, by May 1915, he was with the 13th Battalion in France.

Serving with the same unit was fellow Derbyshire man William Beesley.

Five years Gregg’s junior, he was born on October 5, 1895, in the village of Linton, near Church Gresley.

However, while he was still a youngster, his family moved to Ansley, just outside Nuneaton, where his father worked as a timberer in the nearby Tunnel Colliery.

On leaving school, William Beesley became a pit-boy there. He was just 18 when he joined the Rifle Brigade in 1914.

Over the next four years, both he and William Gregg endured the horrors of trench warfare on the Western Front in France.

This included seeing action during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. On July 1, the very first day of this offensive, the British Expeditionary Force suffered almost 60,000 casualties.

The 13th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade were hit hard early on in the conflict. More than half the unit was wiped out by shell-fire on July 10, during an abortive suicidal attack on German trenches.

They were holding the British frontline at Contalmaison when the fatal command came to go over the top without support from any other unit.

In a savage hail of shell and gunfire, the men began dropping like flies and the order was quickly recalled.

As the survivors struggled back across No Man’s Land with wounded comrades in tow, they initially found themselves being fired upon by British troops who mistook them for the enemy.

The two Derbyshire men were lucky to survive but neither of them came through the war unscathed. Gregg suffered injuries twice, including during the Somme offensive. Beesley, meanwhile, was wounded three times and bore shrapnel scars for the rest of his life.

During the day-to-day fighting in the trenches, the man from Heanor established quite a reputation as a fearless soldier.

On February 4, 1917, he led a daring daylight raid against the enemy which resulted in the acquisition of useful information.

The action saw him awarded the Military Medal and promoted to corporal. A second award was his by the end of the year.

On November 30, Gregg was out with a reconnaissance party when the Germans suddenly launched an attack.

It was vital another section of the battalion by informed.

The miner volunteered to carry several messages across a road which was being swept by machine-gun fire. For this courageous deed he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal, together with promotion to sergeant.

For the men at the Front, there were regular forays into No Man’s Land to attack the Germans in their trenches and capture their guns.

By early May 1918, the 13th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, were at Bucquoy, a French village south of Arras in the Pas-de-Calais region.

On May 8, it was decided that two companies should carry out an assault on the enemy in the vicinity. Sergeant Gregg was with the company on the right and Private Beesley with the one on the left.

It was during this action that the two pit-men won the Victoria Cross. No covering artillery fire had been organised for the daring daylight raid and the troops immediately became the target of heavy gunfire. The battalion was to lose more than 100 men that day.

With all the officers of the right company killed or wounded, Sergeant Gregg at once took command.

He rushed an enemy post and killed the entire machine-gun team. Having acquired the gun, he proceeded to take captive four Germans in a dug-out nearby.

A similar assault on a second enemy position was equally successful.

When the Germans launched a counter-attack, the man from Heanor led a charge and personally bombed a hostile machine-gun post, capturing the weapon.

In the words of the citation for his Victoria Cross: “This gallant NCO saved the situation at a critical time and ensured the success of the attack.”

His brilliant leadership also won high praise: “Although under very heavy machine-gun fire for several hours, Sergeant Gregg displayed throughout the greatest coolness and contempt of danger, walking about encouraging his men and setting a magnificent example.”

Private Beesley, meanwhile, was in the leading wave of the left company’s attack. Enemy fire quickly took the lives of his platoon sergeant and all the section commanders.

Realising what had happened, the young soldier took command of the assault himself.

Armed with just a revolver, he single-handedly rushed a machine-gun post, killing two of the enemy and then dispatching a third who attempted to take their place.

When three more Germans appeared from a dug-out, he called on them to surrender. He shot one of them to stop him from destroying a map.

Following the arrival of a comrade with a Lewis gun, Beesley used this with great effect against the enemy, and the two men held onto their position for four hours under heavy gunfire.

During a counter-attacked by the Germans, the other soldier was wounded but the man from Linton carried on alone. It was largely thanks to his actions that the remainder of the company were able to withdraw without further loss.

Eventually, under cover of darkness, he helped his wounded colleague back to base, along with the Lewis gun.

The citation with his Victoria Cross reads: “The indomitable pluck, skilful shooting and good judgement in economising ammunition displayed by Private Beesley stamp the incident as one of the most brilliant actions in recent operations.”

Both brave men were decorated on the field by Sir Julian Byng, the general in charge of the British Third Army. The official announcement came in the London Gazette on June 28, 1918.

By then, Beesley’s mother had already received a letter from her son with the news he was being awarded a medal.

The young soldier wrote: “I’ve been waiting six weeks and they are still keeping me out of the trenches. I had all the officers round me and had tea with the CO and, after that, saw the Divisional General, who invited me to lunch and gave me a box of cigarettes.”

Private Beesley and Sergeant Gregg were officially presented with the VC by King George V in a ceremony at Frohen-le-Grand in France on August 9, 1918.

The King was there to carry out an inspection of the frontline.

In a message to Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, he remarked: “During my visit I have conferred a number of VCs for deeds of valour and self-sacrifice, the records of which fill my heart with pride and veneration.”

With this latest decoration, William Gregg became the first man to win the Military Medal, the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Victoria Cross, all top awards for gallantry.

After the war, both heroes returned to their former jobs down the pit. Their bravery was celebrated in their local communities.

The people of Heanor presented Gregg with an illuminated address and £200, while Beesley was given the Freedom of the Borough of Nuneaton.

Having already seen enough action to last a lifetime, the two men reported for duty once more in 1939.

Gregg served with the Sherwood Foresters’ National Defence Company. Later, while working on the ferries, he helped bring back survivors from the Dieppe Raid in August 1942.

Beesley, meanwhile, joined the Royal Artillery and trained up young recruits.

After the Second World War, he moved to Foleshill, near Coventry, where he took a job with the Coventry Gauge and Tool Company.

He died while on holiday with his wife in Abergavenny, Wales, on September 23, 1966, aged 70.

Gregg continued as a miner until his retirement in 1959. He was 79 when he died in Heanor 10 years later on August 9, 1969. Both men were buried with full military honours.

For their selfless courage, William Gregg and William Beesley deserve to be remembered, along with all the other Derbyshire men who have won the Victoria Cross and who have been featured previously in YesterdayToday.

The postage stamps being issued this month are a tribute to their outstanding bravery.

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