George Harry Wyatt

He extinguished flames under fire to keep his comrades safe.

George Henry Wyatt, usually known as George Harry Wyatt, was born in Worcester on 5 September 1886. He enlisted in the Coldstream Guards in 1904 and served in Egypt before entering the reserve. He became a policeman, married Ellen Graham and transferred from Barnsley to Doncaster before being recalled in August 1914.

During the fighting at Landrecies on 25–26 August 1914, burning straw threatened to reveal the British position. Wyatt repeatedly went forward under close enemy fire to extinguish the flames. His Victoria Cross also recognised his persistence in action after being wounded during the retreat. The award was gazetted in November 1915, following earlier recognition with the Russian Cross of St George.

Wounded again in 1915, he later served in Britain as an instructor. After the war he returned to the Doncaster Police, retiring in 1934 to become a smallholder. He died at Sprotborough on 22 January 1964, aged 77, and was buried at Cadeby.

Victoria Cross citation

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty.

At Landrecies, on the night of 25th-26th August, 1914, when a part of his Battalion was hotly engaged at the end of a street close to some farm buildings, the enemy, by means of incendiary bombs, set light to some straw stacks in the farmyard. Lance-Corporal Wyatt twice dashed out of the line under very heavy fire from the enemy, who were only 25 yards distant, and extinguished the burning straw. If the fire had spread it would have been quite impossible to have held our position.

Also at Villa Cotteret, after being wounded in the head, Lance-Corporal Wyatt continued firing until he could no longer see owing to the blood which was pouring down his face. The Medical Officer bound up his wound and told him to go to the rear, but he at once returned to the firing-line and continued to fight.