William Henry Grimbaldeston Military person

William Henry Grimbaldeston VC (19 September 1889 – 13 August 1959) 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.Grimbaldeston was 27 years old, and an Acting Company Quartermaster-Sergeant in the 1st Battalion, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, British Army at the Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War when he performed a deed for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.On 16 August 1917 at Wijdendrift, Belgium, Company Quartermaster-Sergeant Grimbaldeston noticed that the unit on his left was held up by enemy machine-gun fire from a blockhouse. Arming himself with a rifle and hand grenade he started to crawl towards his objective, and when he had advanced about 100 yards another soldier came forward to give covering support. Although wounded, he pushed on to the blockhouse, threatened the machine-gun teams inside with a hand grenade and forced them to surrender. This action resulted in the capture of 36 prisoners, six machine-guns and one trench mortar. He was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

Personal facts

William Henry Grimbaldeston
Birth dateSeptember 19, 1889
Birth place
Blackburn , Lancashire
Date of deathAugust 13, 1959
Place of death
Blackburn

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Military person

award
Victoria Cross
Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France)
military operations
World War I
military branch
British Army
military unit
King's Own Scottish Borderers

William Henry Grimbaldeston on Wikipedia

External resources

  1. http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/lancashi.htm