Harry Daniels

Few soldiers willingly move toward an obstacle while machine-gun fire is sweeping the ground around them. On 12 March 1915, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, Company Serjeant-Major Harry Daniels did exactly that. With Acting Corporal Cecil Reginald Noble beside him, Daniels rushed forward to cut the German wire that was holding up the advance of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade. Both men were hit. Noble later died of his wounds, while Daniels survived to receive the Victoria Cross and went on to distinguish himself again under fire, earning the Military Cross less than a year later.

Lieutenant Colonel Harry Daniels VC, MC was born on 13 December 1884 at Wymondham, Norfolk. His life took him from a difficult childhood in Norwich to service in India, the battlefields of the First World War, a commission in the British Army, and ultimately the honorary rank of lieutenant-colonel. His name remains closely associated with one of the most celebrated acts of gallantry at Neuve Chapelle.

From Wymondham to the Rifle Brigade

Daniels was the son of William Daniels, a baker and confectioner, and his wife Elizabeth. After losing both parents while still a child, Harry and one of his brothers were placed in the Boys' Home at St Faith's Lane, Norwich, under the care of the Norwich Board of Guardians. He was educated at Thorpe Hamlet Boys' School and was later apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner.

On 31 January 1903, Daniels enlisted in The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own). After training at Gosport and Chatham, he went to India with the 2nd Battalion in 1905. He steadily advanced through the ranks, becoming a corporal in 1909 and a sergeant in 1910. He married Kathleen Mary Perry in Calcutta on 21 January 1914.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the battalion returned from India. Daniels became Company Quartermaster-Sergeant in October 1914 and landed at Le Havre with the battalion on 7 November. On 12 December 1914 he was promoted to Company Serjeant-Major. Only three months later, his name would become part of Victoria Cross history.

Neuve Chapelle and the Victoria Cross

On 12 March 1915, during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in France, the advance of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade was blocked by uncut German wire and subjected to intense machine-gun fire. The obstruction had to be breached if the attack was to continue.

Daniels and Acting Corporal Cecil Reginald Noble volunteered to go forward with wire cutters. Exposed directly to enemy fire, the two men reached the entanglement and began cutting a passage through it. Both were wounded during the attempt. Daniels was struck in the thigh, while Noble received a fatal wound and died shortly afterwards.

The official Victoria Cross citation described their conduct as "most conspicuous bravery" and recorded that the two men voluntarily rushed forward and succeeded in cutting the wire despite the severe machine-gun fire.

The awards to Daniels and Noble were announced in the Supplement to The London Gazette, Issue 29146, dated 27 April 1915 and published 28 April 1915, page 4143.

Daniels was evacuated to Britain for treatment. On 15 May 1915, King George V personally invested him with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace. The decoration marked one extraordinary moment, but it was not the end of Daniels's front-line gallantry.

Commission and the Military Cross

Daniels was commissioned into The Rifle Brigade in July 1915 and returned to active service on the Western Front.

On 2 March 1916, near Fromelles, he again deliberately exposed himself to enemy fire to save another soldier. Daniels went to the edge of the German wire, reached a wounded man and brought him approximately 300 yards to safety while under heavy fire.

His Military Cross recognition also referred to an earlier incident. After two successive patrols had failed to locate a wounded corporal, Daniels volunteered to lead another party. The third attempt succeeded in recovering the corporal's body.

For these acts of gallantry, Harry Daniels was awarded the Military Cross, gazetted on 30 March 1916.

The circumstances of the award are particularly revealing. His Victoria Cross had been won during a dramatic assault witnessed by others, but the actions recognised by the Military Cross showed the same willingness to enter exposed ground when another soldier needed help. Neuve Chapelle was not an isolated moment of courage.

Daniels was wounded again on 3 July 1916, suffering a fractured arm, and was promoted to lieutenant in August. He subsequently served in physical and bayonet training appointments and was a member of the British Military Mission to the United States in 1918.

Later Service and Legacy

After the First World War, Daniels continued his Army career and was promoted to captain in 1921. He later served in staff and administrative appointments before retiring from the Regular Army on 26 April 1930.

His military service was not finished. Daniels returned to recruiting duties in the 1930s and was granted the local rank of lieutenant-colonel in December 1934 while serving as Chief Recruiting Officer in East Lancashire. When that period of employment ended in 1942, he was granted the honorary rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In civilian life he worked in hotel management and later became manager of the Grand Theatre and Opera House in Leeds. He died in Leeds on 13 December 1953, his sixty-ninth birthday, exactly sixty-nine years after his birth in Wymondham.

Harry Daniels is remembered not simply because he possessed the letters VC, MC after his name, but because he repeatedly placed himself in danger for the sake of the men around him. At Neuve Chapelle he and Cecil Noble went forward when wire and machine-gun fire had stopped an entire advance. At Fromelles, Daniels again entered exposed ground to bring a wounded soldier back.

His surviving medal group, including his Victoria Cross and Military Cross, is held in the collection of the Royal Green Jackets Museum in Winchester, preserving the story of a Rifle Brigade soldier whose courage carried him from the ranks to lieutenant-colonel and into the history of the Victoria Cross.