Alfred Wilcox

The Corporal Who Silenced Four Machine-Gun Posts When Alfred Wilcox found his company pinned down by machine-gun fire near Laventie in September 1918, he did not wait for someone else to solve the problem. He went forward himself. By the time his extraordinary attack was over, four German machine-gun positions had been captured or destroyed, and a Birmingham soldier who had entered the war as an ordinary serviceman had earned the Victoria Cross. Alfred Wilcox VC was born in Aston, Birmingham, on 16 December 1884. Before the First World War he worked as a diamond mounter and already had experience as a part-time soldier, serving first with the 1st Royal Warwickshire Volunteer Battalion and later continuing Territorial service after his work took him to Liverpool. When Britain was at war, Wilcox returned to military service, joining the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars on 25 March 1915. He was eventually transferred to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and reached the Western Front in December 1917. By April 1918 he was serving with the 2/4th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the unit with which he would perform the action that made his name part of Victoria Cross history. That moment came on 12 September 1918 near Laventie, France. The 2/4th Battalion was attempting to push forward against strongly defended German positions when Wilcox's company was checked by heavy machine-gun fire at close range. Instead of remaining under cover, Lance Corporal Wilcox advanced with four men towards the nearest position. He bombed the post, killed the gunner and put the weapon out of action. When an enemy bombing party counterattacked, Wilcox seized German bombs and continued the assault. He helped capture and destroy a second machine gun, then, despite being left with only one man, continued along the trench and dealt with a third position. He pressed on yet again and captured a fourth machine gun before returning to his platoon. It was an astonishing sequence of individual attacks, conducted while his force around him steadily diminished. The official citation singled out Wilcox's "exceptional valour, judgment, and initiative." His Victoria Cross was announced in the Seventh Supplement to The London Gazette, 15 November 1918, Issue 31012, page 13473, under his service number 285242. The award was therefore not based on one sudden act of courage, but on Wilcox repeatedly choosing to continue the attack after each objective had been taken. Even after reaching the first gun, and later finding himself with only one other man, he kept moving forward. There was still more war ahead of him. On 2 November 1918, only days before the Armistice, Wilcox was shot in the right foot during fighting involving the 2/4th Battalion. He was returned to Britain for treatment and ultimately discharged from the Army on 2 May 1919. His discharge was accompanied by the Silver War Badge, recognition connected with his wartime wound and discharge, although the badge is not represented as a ribbon in a military ribbon rack. Wilcox's Victoria Cross was formally presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 26 November 1918. His complete surviving medal group provides an unusually strong record of his recognised service. Alongside the Victoria Cross, Wilcox received the British War Medal 1914-1920 and Victory Medal 1914-1919 for his First World War service. In later life he was also awarded the King George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953. Christie's documented the original group as a five-medal set comprising precisely these awards, while the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association independently records the same entitlement.

Of those honours, the Victoria Cross is the award with an individual gallantry citation. The British War Medal and Victory Medal were campaign service awards, while the 1937 and 1953 Coronation Medals were commemorative honours and therefore do not carry personal gallantry citations comparable to the VC. The surviving group nevertheless tells the wider story of Wilcox's life, from a First World War infantryman under fire in France to a decorated veteran recognised at two royal coronations decades later. After leaving the Army, Wilcox remained closely connected with the veteran community. He became active in the British Legion, served as President of its Birmingham Council in 1926 and 1927, and had founded the Bromford Branch in 1923. His wartime service had ended, but his involvement with former servicemen continued for much of the rest of his life. Alfred Wilcox died in Birmingham on 30 March 1954, aged 69. His story remains remarkable because the courage recognised by the Victoria Cross did not come from a senior commander directing a battle from behind the lines. It came from a lance corporal confronted with machine guns at close range who repeatedly decided to go forward. More than a century after the fighting near Laventie, Corporal Alfred Wilcox VC of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry is remembered for an action in which persistence became every bit as important as courage. Four enemy gun positions stood in his path. Wilcox kept advancing until none of them could stop his men.