Douglas Reynolds

He brought a gun out under fire and fought again while hurt.

Douglas Reynolds VC was a Royal Field Artillery officer whose Victoria Cross recognised his conduct during the retreat from Mons and the subsequent Allied advance in 1914. Educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he received his commission in 1900. He served in the final months of the South African War and later in India before joining 37th Battery in France.

At Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, British guns were in danger of capture. Reynolds brought forward teams of volunteer drivers under artillery and rifle fire and helped limber up two guns. With the enemy close, he and Drivers Frederick Luke and Job Drain succeeded in getting one away. On 9 September he reconnoitred an enemy battery at close range and helped silence its fire. He was severely wounded on the Aisne later that month.

Promoted major, Reynolds recovered sufficiently to train and command a new howitzer battery. King George V presented his VC in January 1915, and he married that March. He returned to operations but suffered further injury from a gas shell. After hospital treatment, he died at Le Touquet on 23 February 1916 and was buried in Etaples Military Cemetery. His son, born shortly before his death, later served in the Irish Guards and was killed in 1940.

Official Victoria Cross citation

At Le Cateau, on 26th August, he took up two teams and limbered up two guns under heavy Artillery and Infantry fire, and though the enemy was within 100 yards he got one gun away safely. At Pisseloup, on 9th September, he reconnoitred at close range, discovered a battery which was holding up the advance and silenced it. He was severely wounded 15th September, 1914.

Third Supplement to The London Gazette of 13 November 1914. 16 November 1914, Numb. 28976, p. 9373. Repeated in The London Gazette of 17 November 1914, Numb. 28977, p. 9402