Charles Calveley Foss

Charles Calveley Foss was born on 9 March 1885 in Kobe, Japan; his father at that time was the Reverend Hugh James Foss, who was the Bishop of Osaka. After his mother died when he was nine years old, he received his education in England by attending Marlborough College and then going on to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment on 2 March 1904 and had reached the rank of captain by 1912; before the outbreak of the First World War, he was based in South Africa.

The 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment arrived at Zeebrugge in October 1914 and at once became involved in the intense fighting of the First Battle of Ypres. Foss distinguished himself in this early defensive action and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), a list of which was published in February 1915. A month later, the British Army carried out its first deliberate offensive at Neuve Chapelle. On 12 March 1915, during a violent German counter-attack, the enemy managed to take over a part of the British trench line. The British made the first attempt to retake the position with a single officer and twenty men, but this effort was completely destroyed, the result being that all but two of the men in the assault party were either killed or wounded. Acting at once, Foss quickly put together a force of only eight men. Under heavy fire, he led a sudden and close-range bombing attack which entirely overwhelmed the German position, capturing the trench and taking fifty-two prisoners. As a result of this decisive counter-attack, he was given the Victoria Cross. The full official citation from the London Gazette is as follows:

"For most conspicuous bravery at Neuve Chapelle on 12th March, 1915. After the enemy had captured a part of one of our trenches, and our counter-attack made with one Officer and 20 men having failed (all but two of the party being killed or wounded in the attempt), Captain Foss, on his own initiative, dashed forward with eight men, under heavy fire, attacked the enemy with bombs, and captured the position, including the 52 Germans occupying it. The capture of this position from the enemy was of the greatest importance, and the utmost bravery was displayed in essaying the task with so very few men."

After carrying out the action for which he received the Victoria Cross, Foss went on to serve in the military on the Western Front, holding the position of brigade major and then obtaining a brevet major in October 1916. He stayed with the regular army during the years between the world wars and reached the rank of brigadier, being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1937. In the Second World War he served with the Home Guard and thus ended a military career which had lasted almost four decades. He died in London on 9 April 1953, and his ashes were buried in West Hill Cemetery, Winchester.