Arthur Martin-Leake

He braved enemy fire to bring wounded troops back to safety.

Arthur Martin-Leake was born on 4 April 1874 at Marshalls, High Cross, Hertfordshire. Educated at Westminster School and University College Hospital, he qualified MRCS and LRCP in 1898 and became FRCS in 1903. He served with the Hertfordshire Imperial Yeomanry in the Second Boer War, then as a civilian surgeon and Surgeon-Captain in the South African Constabulary. At Vlakfontein on 8 February 1902, he treated casualties under close Boer fire. Shot three times while helping a wounded officer, he continued until exhausted and refused water until the other wounded men had received it. The action earned his first Victoria Cross.

He subsequently worked for the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in India. During the Balkan Wars of 1912–13, he volunteered with a British Red Cross medical unit in Montenegro. King Nicholas I awarded him the Order of the Red Cross of Montenegro; he also received the British Red Cross Society Balkan War Medal with Montenegro clasp, presented by Queen Alexandra on 8 July 1913.

In 1914 he returned to Europe and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a lieutenant with the 5th Field Ambulance. Between 29 October and 8 November, near Zonnebeke during the First Battle of Ypres, he repeatedly rescued wounded men close to enemy trenches under fire. He became the first man awarded a Bar to the Victoria Cross. In late 1915 he joined the British Adriatic Mission assisting the retreating Serbian Army, reached Corfu in early 1916, and returned to France in March 1916. He later commanded the 46th Field Ambulance and a casualty clearing station as a lieutenant-colonel. He was mentioned in despatches and received the British Medical Association Gold Medal.

After the war, Martin-Leake resumed railway medical work in India. He retired to Hertfordshire in 1937 and served in a mobile air-raid medical unit during the Second World War. He died at Marshalls on 22 June 1953, was cremated at Enfield on 26 June, and his ashes were interred at High Cross churchyard. His VC and Bar are held by the Museum of Military Medicine.

**Victoria Cross citation, 1902**

“During the action at Vlakfontein, on the 8th February, 1902, Surgeon-Captain Martin-Leake went up to a wounded man, and attended to him under a heavy fire from about 40 Boers at 100 yards range. He then went to the assistance of a wounded Officer, and, whilst trying to place him in a comfortable position, was shot three times, but would not give in till he rolled over thoroughly exhausted. All the eight men at this point were wounded, and while they were lying on the Veldt, Surgeon-Captain Martin-Leake refused water till every one else had been served.”

**Citation for the Bar, 1915**

“Lieutenant Arthur Martin Leake, Royal Army Medical Corps, who was awarded the Victoria Cross on 13th May, 1902, is granted a Clasp for conspicuous bravery in the present campaign: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty throughout the campaign, especially during the period 29th October to 8th November, 1914, near Zonnebeke, in rescuing, whilst exposed to constant fire, a large number of the wounded who were lying close to the enemy’s trenches.”