Anketell Moutray Read

The Officer Who Refused to Leave Men Behind Partially gassed, exposed to devastating enemy fire, and surrounded by men falling back in confusion, Captain Anketell Moutray Read did not follow them. He went forward. Again and again, he entered the danger zone, rallied retreating soldiers, and led them back into the firing line. On 25 September 1915, during the opening attack of the Battle of Loos, that determination cost him his life and earned him the Victoria Cross. Born in Cheltenham on 27 October 1884, Anketell Moutray Read was the son of Colonel John Moutray Read. After his education and training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment on 21 November 1903. Much of his early military career was spent in India, where he transferred to the 7th Hariana Lancers in 1907 before joining the Northamptonshire Regiment in September 1911. He also became associated with the newly formed Royal Flying Corps, having gained an aviator's certificate during the pioneering years of British military aviation. Read was not only an accomplished soldier. He was an exceptional athlete and one of the British Army's most formidable boxers. During his years in India he repeatedly won heavyweight championships and also competed successfully at middleweight. Contemporary accounts remembered him as a fighter who simply would not accept defeat. That reputation would later seem almost prophetic when tested under very different circumstances on the Western Front. When the First World War began in August 1914, Read went to France with the British Expeditionary Force. His early wartime service placed him among the British troops fighting through the opening campaign on the Western Front. He served at Mons, took part in the retreat toward the Marne, and was attached to the 9th Lancers. During the fighting on the Aisne in September 1914 he was severely wounded. After recovering, he was promoted to captain in March 1915 and returned to France with the 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment in May. His return to active service soon revealed that his courage at Loos was not an isolated act. During the night of 29 to 30 July 1915, Read went out under intense rifle and grenade fire and brought a mortally wounded officer back from the fighting. His later Victoria Cross citation also recorded conspicuous bravery during dangerous digging operations on 29, 30 and 31 August 1915. These earlier actions were specifically remembered when his final act of gallantry was considered for Britain's highest award for valour. Then came 25 September 1915, the opening day of the Battle of Loos. Near Hulluch, British forces were advancing through a battlefield complicated by heavy enemy fire and drifting gas. Some troops became disorganised and began retiring. Read himself had been partially affected by gas, but instead of seeking safety he repeatedly went out to rally men from different units. The battalion war diary records that he gathered a party of roughly sixty men, led them forward again, and helped establish a position south of Lone Tree. His official Victoria Cross citation opened with the words "For most conspicuous bravery during the first attack near Hulluch". It recorded that Read repeatedly rallied troops who were falling back, led them into the firing line, and moved among them under withering fire to encourage them. He was mortally wounded while carrying out this work. The citation also deliberately included his earlier gallantry in July and August, showing that the award recognised a pattern of extraordinary courage culminating in his actions at Hulluch. The award was published in The London Gazette, Supplement 29371, page 11447, on 16 November 1915. Read never lived to receive the Victoria Cross. He had been killed during the very action for which it was awarded. King George V later presented the Cross to his mother at Buckingham Palace on 29 November 1916. His Victoria Cross is associated with the Northamptonshire Regiment collection at Northampton. His First World War service also established entitlement to the 1914 Star with the dated 5th Aug. to 22nd Nov. 1914 clasp, commonly associated with the original British Expeditionary Force and often called the Mons clasp, together with the British War Medal 1914-1920 and the Victory Medal 1914-1919. A specialist record of Read's medal group identifies all three campaign awards alongside his Victoria Cross. The National Archives confirms that the 1914 Star was awarded for qualifying service in France and Flanders during the opening months of the war, while the special clasp recognised those who had actually been under fire during the qualifying period. When only ribbons were worn, that clasp entitlement was represented by a silver rosette on the 1914 Star ribbon. Captain Anketell Moutray Read VC was buried at Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos, in Plot VII, Row F, Grave 19. His story remains closely connected with the Northamptonshire Regiment, the Royal Flying Corps, the Battle of Loos and the earliest campaigns of the British Expeditionary Force. What makes Read's story endure is not simply the decoration attached to his name. It is the sequence of choices behind it. He had already been badly wounded in 1914. He returned to France. He repeatedly exposed himself to danger to help wounded comrades. Then, at Hulluch, while affected by gas and under intense fire, he chose to turn back toward men who were retreating and lead them forward again. The Victoria Cross recorded his courage. His final actions explained why he received it.