Frederick George Topham

Shot in the face, he carried wounded men away from the fire.

Frederick George Topham was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 10 August 1917. Educated at King George Public School and Runnymede High School, he worked as a hard-rock miner at Kirkland Lake before joining the Canadian Army on 3 August 1942. He volunteered for airborne service and qualified as a parachutist at Fort Benning, Georgia, in March 1943. That July he sailed to Britain, where the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion trained as part of the British 6th Airborne Division.

Illness prevented Topham from making the battalion's D-Day parachute drop. He instead travelled to Normandy by sea and served with the battalion during the campaign. By March 1945 he was a corporal and medical orderly, preparing for Operation Varsity, the airborne assault supporting the Allied crossing of the Rhine.

On 24 March 1945, Topham landed near Wesel, Germany, and repeatedly crossed exposed ground to rescue wounded men. Shot through the nose while treating a casualty, he continued his work despite severe bleeding and refused to leave the battlefield. He later pulled three men from a burning carrier under fire. His sustained courage through six hours of danger earned the Victoria Cross, announced on 3 August 1945.

Topham survived the war and returned to Toronto, where a public procession and civic reception celebrated his courage. On 10 November 1945 he laid the cornerstone of Sunnybrook's active-treatment building, part of the new hospital for veterans. He briefly served as a Toronto police officer before working in the city's electricity service, becoming an emergency troubleshooter with Toronto Hydro. His working life continued until his sudden death in Toronto on 31 May 1974, aged 56. At his wife Mary's request, the funeral was private. He was buried in Sanctuary Park Cemetery, Etobicoke.

Official Victoria Cross citation

No. B.39039 Corporal Frederick George Topham, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion.

On 24th March, 1945, Corporal Topham, a medical orderly, parachuted with his Battalion on to a strongly defended area east of the Rhine. At about 1100 hours, whilst treating casualties sustained in the drop, a cry for help came from a wounded man in the open. Two medical orderlies from a field ambulance went out to this man in succession but both were killed as they knelt beside the casualty.

Without, hesitation and on his own initiative, Corporal Topham went forward through intense fire to replace the orderlies who had been killed before his eyes. As he worked on the wounded man, he was himself shot through the nose. In spite of severe bleeding and intense pain, he never faltered in his task. Having completed immediate first aid, he carried the wounded man steadily and slowly back through continuous fire to the shelter of a wood.

During the next two hours Corporal Topham refused all offers of medical help for his own wound. He worked most devotedly throughout this period to bring in wounded, showing complete disregard for the heavy and accurate enemy fire. It was only when all casualties had been cleared that he consented to his own wound being treated.

His immediate evacuation was ordered, but he interceded so earnestly on his own behalf that he was eventually allowed to return to duty.

On his way back to his company he came across a carrier, which had received a direct hit. Enemy mortar bombs were still dropping around, the carrier itself was burning fiercely and its own mortar ammunition was exploding. An experienced officer on the spot had warned all not to approach the carrier.

Corporal Topham, however, immediately went out alone in spite of the blasting ammunition and enemy fire, and rescued the three occupants of the carrier. He brought these men back across the open and, although one died almost immediately afterwards, he arranged for the evacuation of the other two, who undoubtedly owe their lives to him.

This N.C.O. showed sustained gallantry of the highest order. For six hours, most of the time in great pain, he performed a series of acts of outstanding bravery and his magnificent and selfless courage inspired all those who witnessed it.

Source: The London Gazette, issue 37205, Second Supplement, 3 August 1945, page 3965. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37205/supplement/3965/data.pdf