Albert Edward McKenzie

The 19-Year-Old Sailor Who Fought His Way Along the Zeebrugge Mole Albert Edward McKenzie was only nineteen when he stepped onto the Zeebrugge Mole under devastating German fire. Around him, officers and sailors were being killed or wounded. McKenzie kept his machine gun in action, advanced with the assault party, and continued fighting from an exposed position until he too was severely wounded. His courage during the Zeebrugge Raid of 22 to 23 April 1918 earned the young Royal Navy sailor the Victoria Cross. He survived the bullets and shells of Zeebrugge, but tragically died from illness only months later and just eight days before the Armistice ended the First World War. Albert Edward McKenzie VC was born on 23 October 1898 at 10 Alice Street, Bermondsey, London, the son of Alexander McKenzie, a photographer, and Eliza McKenzie, née Marks. He was educated at Webb Street School in Bermondsey and Mina Road School in Southwark. His upbringing in working-class South London remained an important part of his identity, and Bermondsey would continue to commemorate him long after his death. VC and GC Association McKenzie entered naval life while still a boy. In 1913 he joined the training ship Arethusa at Greenhithe. On 20 June 1914 he became a Boy 2nd Class at HMS Ganges, advancing to Boy 1st Class on 18 December that year. On 14 April 1915 he joined the dreadnought battleship HMS Neptune. He became an Ordinary Seaman on 23 April 1916 and was rated Able Seaman on 15 June 1917. His official number was J31736, Chatham Division. VC and GC Association McKenzie's posting to HMS Neptune placed him aboard the battleship during the period in which she fought with the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. Neptune was part of the 1st Battle Squadron and took part in the great clash between Britain's Grand Fleet and Germany's High Seas Fleet. McKenzie's specific station or duties during the battle have not been established in the sources reviewed, so it would be inappropriate to assign him a particular gun or combat role. What can be established is that his naval service placed him aboard Neptune during one of the defining naval battles of the First World War. VC and GC Association By March 1918 McKenzie had been posted to HMS Hindustan, and soon afterwards he volunteered for special service in the operation against Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast. The British plan was extraordinarily dangerous. Zeebrugge provided access through the canal system to Bruges, an important base used by German submarines and surface craft. The Royal Navy intended to sink blockships near the canal entrance while an assault force from HMS Vindictive, supported by Iris II and Daffodil, attacked positions on the Mole and distracted the German defenders. The British government later described the operation as an attempt to obstruct German naval access to and from the port. GOV.UK McKenzie served in B Company of the seamen's storming party. During the night of 22 to 23 April 1918, HMS Vindictive came alongside the Mole under intense enemy fire. McKenzie succeeded in landing with his machine gun despite the enormous difficulties facing the assault force. He then advanced along the Mole with Lieutenant-Commander Arthur Leyland Harrison. Harrison and most of his party were killed, but McKenzie continued the attack and engaged German personnel moving from a shelter towards a destroyer lying alongside the Mole. He remained at his weapon in an exposed position until he was severely wounded. The Gazette The official Victoria Cross citation opened with the words "For most conspicuous gallantry." It specifically recorded McKenzie's machine-gun work on the Mole, his advance with Harrison, his engagement of the enemy and the severe wounds he suffered while continuing to operate his weapon. Most significantly, McKenzie was not selected for the Victoria Cross through the normal individual recommendation process. He was chosen by the men of HMS Vindictive, Iris II, Daffodil and the naval assaulting force under Rule 13 of the Victoria Cross Royal Warrant of 29 January 1856. His comrades had, in effect, selected him to represent their collective gallantry. The Gazette McKenzie's Victoria Cross appeared among the Zeebrugge awards in The London Gazette, Issue 30807, and his official citation identified him as "Able Seaman Albert Edward McKenzie, O.N. J31736 (Ch.)." The Gazette's contemporary record is the primary documentary authority for both the award and the circumstances for which it was granted. The Gazette After Zeebrugge, McKenzie was evacuated for medical treatment and became associated with HMS Pembroke I while recovering at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham. His wounds had been serious, but by the summer he had recovered sufficiently to travel to London. On 31 July 1918, King George V personally invested him with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace. Contemporary biographical records state that McKenzie attended the ceremony while still recovering from his injuries. VC and GC Association His complete confirmed First World War medal entitlement also included the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-1920 and Victory Medal 1914-1919. These accompanied the Victoria Cross in his historical medal group and reflect his Royal Navy service during the First World War. The Victoria Cross and George Cross Association specifically records all three campaign medals among his other awards. VC and GC Association The story might have ended with a young sailor recovering from terrible wounds and returning to a hero's welcome. Instead, it took a final tragic turn. While still recovering at the Royal Naval Hospital at Chatham, McKenzie contracted influenza during the devastating 1918 pandemic. The illness developed into pneumonia, and Albert Edward McKenzie died on 3 November 1918, aged twenty. The Armistice was signed only eight days later. VC and GC Association His body was returned to London, and he was buried on 9 November 1918 in Camberwell Old Cemetery, Forest Hill Road, in Square 85, Grave 25538. Captain Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter VC, who had commanded HMS Vindictive during the Zeebrugge Raid and had himself received the Victoria Cross for the operation, attended the funeral. McKenzie's grave remains officially recorded, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission data identifies him as Able Seaman Albert Edward McKenzie, Royal Navy, HMS Vindictive, service number J/31736. VC and GC Association McKenzie's life had lasted only twenty years, but his naval service connected him with two of the most famous British naval operations of the First World War. He served aboard HMS Neptune during the period of the Battle of Jutland, then volunteered for the assault force sent against Zeebrugge. It was there, not as an officer or senior commander but as a nineteen-year-old Able Seaman carrying a machine gun, that he performed the action for which his fellow sailors selected him to receive Britain's highest award for gallantry. More than a century later, Albert Edward McKenzie VC remains inseparable from the story of the Zeebrugge Raid. His Victoria Cross records an extraordinary few minutes of courage on the Mole, but the wider story is equally compelling: a Bermondsey boy who entered the Royal Navy as a teenager, served through the First World War, volunteered for an operation from which he might never return, survived devastating wounds, received the Victoria Cross from King George V, and died just days before the war ended. His name endures in naval remembrance, in South London and at his grave in Camberwell as one of the young sailors whose courage came to define the extraordinary sacrifice of Zeebrugge.