George Allan Maling

He treated hundreds of wounded men beneath heavy enemy fire.

George Allan Maling was born at Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, on 6 October 1888. He studied at Uppingham, Exeter College, Oxford, and St Thomas's Hospital, qualifying as a doctor before taking a Royal Army Medical Corps commission in January 1915. He reached France in July.

At Fauquissart on 25 September 1915, during the Battle of Loos, Lieutenant Maling collected and treated more than 300 casualties in the open over 24 hours. Shell explosions stunned him, wounded his assistant and killed patients, but he continued working even when another blast buried his instruments in debris. His Victoria Cross was gazetted that November.

Promoted captain, he served at Grantham and returned to France with 34th Field Ambulance in 1917. After leaving the Army in 1919, he worked at children's and general hospitals before entering medical partnership in Lee, London. He married nursing sister Daisy Wolmer and had four children. He died at home on 9 July 1929, aged 40, and was buried in Chislehurst Cemetery.

Victoria Cross citation: For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during the heavy fighting near Fauquissart on 25th September, 1915. Lieutenant Maling worked incessantly with untiring energy from 6.15 a.m. on the 25th till 8 a.m. on the 26th, collecting and treating in the open under heavy shell fire more than 300 men. At about 11 a.m. on the 25th he was flung down and temporarily stunned by the bursting of a large high-explosive shell, which wounded his only assistant and killed several of his patients. A second shell soon covered him and his instruments with debris, but his high courage and zeal never failed him and he continued his gallant work single-handed.

Third Supplement to The London Gazette of 16 November 1915. 18 November 1915, Numb. 29371, p. 11448