New Zealand VCs
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Corporal Willie Apiata VC and the New Zealand |
William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse was the first person to win the Victoria Cross in the air. A pioneer aviator and a motor racing enthusiast who set several aviation firsts and raced a Rolls Royce in the Monte Carlo rally, Rhodes-Moorhouse was awarded the Victoria Cross after an exceptionally brave lone bombing raid on the Kortrijk railway junction in 1915. He died of the injuries he sustained after descending to a very low level in order to ensure his bomb hit the target and then flying through gunfire back to his base. Click on the name for the full article.
Samuel Frickleton was a Scots-born, third-generation coalminer who emigrated to New Zealand with his mother, brothers and sister following the death of his father in 1913. He was working as a miner at the historic Blackball mine on the West Coast when war broke out. Five of the Frickleton brothers, including Samuel, enlisted. Although sent home seriously ill, Samuel managed to re-enlist and at the Battle of Messines in June 1917 carried out several actions that were critical in ensuring that the New Zealand advance continued without additional casualties. A new plaque to Samuel Frickleton was unveiled at one of the sites of these actions in the town of Messines in 2007. Click on the name for the full article.
Leslie Wilton Andrew was a lance corporal and just 20 years old in July 1917 when he carried out the actions at La Basseville, then a tiny Belgian village just a few kilometres from Messines, which resulted in the Victoria Cross. Born at Ashurst in the Manawatu in 1897, he grew up in Wanganui before starting work with the Railways Department as a clerk. After World War One he continued to serve in the New Zealand Army and was a brigadier in World War Two when he was involved in the Battle for Crete controversy. Click on the name for the full article.
Henry James Nicholas was born in 1891 in Lincoln, near Christchurch. Apprenticed as a carpenter but also an accomplished boxer, he moved to Australia but returned home to enlist after World War One began. He served in a number of actions on The Somme in 1916, again at Messines in mid 1917 and then went on into the dreadful Flanders winter following Passchendaele. On 3 December the First Battalion of the Canterbury Regiment attacked the Polderhoek Chateau spur close to Zonnebeke and Passchendaele. It was during this action that Private Nicholas won the Canterbury Regiment's first Victoria Cross. He was killed in 1918 near Le Quesnoy in France. A new statue of Nicholas was dedicated in Christchurch in 2007. Click on the name for the full article.