George Samson

He aided wounded men as Gallipoli gunfire swept the lighters

George McKenzie Samson was born in Carnoustie, Scotland, on 7 January 1889, the son of a shoemaker. He went to sea and joined the Royal Naval Reserve, combining merchant employment with a commitment to naval service. In 1915 he was a seaman in the volunteer crew of the converted collier River Clyde, assigned to land troops at V Beach on the Gallipoli peninsula.

When the ship grounded on 25 April, the lighters intended to form a bridge to the shore drifted out of position. Soldiers trying to disembark were caught under intense Ottoman machine-gun and rifle fire. Maintaining a passage between ship and shore became a desperate task, with sailors working in the water and on exposed barges.

Samson remained on the lighters throughout the day. He helped officers handling the connecting lines and moved among the wounded, carrying men to shelter and treating them until medical help could reach them. His work continued amid repeated damage to the improvised bridge. The ship's surgeon later described both daring rescues and his participation in the close fighting at the beach.

Eventually a burst of machine-gun fire wounded him in numerous places. He survived and returned to Britain for treatment. King George V presented his Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 5 October 1915. France also recognised his gallantry with the Médaille militaire.

After the war Samson returned to the Merchant Navy and sailed from Dundee as a quartermaster aboard the tanker Dosina. During a voyage toward the Gulf of Mexico early in 1923 he became seriously ill. Transferred to another ship bound for Bermuda, he died of double pneumonia on 23 February. He was thirty-four. He was buried with military honours at St George's, Bermuda. His award group preserved the Victoria Cross, the First World War campaign trio and the French decoration earned during his short but exceptionally dangerous naval service.

Victoria Cross citation: Worked on a lighter all day under fire, attending wounded and getting out lines; he was eventually dangerously wounded by maxim fire.

Second Supplement to The London Gazette of 13 August 1915. 16 August 1915, Numb. 29264, p. 8129