Allan Ebenezer Ker

Defended Wounded Comrades Until His Ammunition Was Exhausted

Allan Ebenezer Ker VC was born in Edinburgh on 5 March 1883. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, he studied law at Edinburgh University and worked as a solicitor. He joined the Queen's Edinburgh Mounted Rifles before the First World War and later entered the Gordon Highlanders. By March 1918, he was a lieutenant attached to the 61st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps.

Near St Quentin on 21 March 1918, a heavy German bombardment and infantry attack broke through the British line. Ker used a Vickers machine gun to delay the advance, then stayed with wounded men when his position became isolated. After the gun was destroyed, the defenders fought with revolvers and a captured rifle. Exhausted and affected by gas, he resisted until the ammunition was gone and the enemy overwhelmed the position.

His Victoria Cross was gazetted in September 1919. The full official citation reads:

“For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. On the 21st March 1918, near St. Quentin, after a very heavy bombardment, the enemy penetrated our line, and the flank of the 61st Division became exposed.

Lieutenant Ker with one Vickers gun succeeded in engaging the enemy's infantry, approaching under cover of dead ground, and held up the attack, inflicting many casualties.

He then sent back word to his Battalion headquarters that he had determined to stop with his Sergeant and several men who had been badly wounded and fight until a counter-attack could be launched to relieve him.

Just as ammunition failed his party were attacked from behind by the enemy with bombs, machine guns, and with the bayonet. Several bayonet attacks were delivered, but each time they were repulsed by Lieutenant Ker and his companions with their revolvers, the Vickers gun having by this time been destroyed. The wounded were conducted into a small shelter, and it was decided to defend them to the last and to hold up the enemy as long as possible.

In one of the many hand-to-hand encounters a German rifle and bayonet and a small supply of ammunition was secured, and subsequently used with good effect against the enemy.

Although Lieutenant Ker was very exhausted from want of food and gas poisoning and from the supreme exertions he had made during ten hours of the most severe bombardment, fighting, and attending to the wounded, he refused to surrender until all his ammunition was exhausted and his position was rushed by large numbers of the enemy.

His behaviour throughout the day was absolutely cool and fearless, and by his determination he was materially instrumental in engaging and holding up for three hours more than 500 of the enemy.”

Ker returned from captivity in December 1918. King George V presented his Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 26 November 1919. He resumed legal work, including practice in Calcutta, and served at the War Office during the Second World War. Afterward, he worked with London's rent tribunals.

He died in Hampstead on 12 September 1958 and was buried in West Hampstead Cemetery. His medal group entered the Lord Ashcroft Collection. In October 2024, his grave's headstone was cleaned and restored, preserving a memorial to his defence of wounded comrades.