Harry Greenwood

When enemy machine guns stopped his battalion, Harry Greenwood did not wait for someone else to act. He went forward himself. By the end of two extraordinary days in October 1918, he had personally attacked enemy positions, led his exhausted men through intense fire, captured major objectives, and demonstrated the battlefield leadership that earned him the Victoria Cross.

Harry Greenwood was born on 25 November 1881 at Victoria Barracks in Windsor, England, where his father was serving with the Grenadier Guards. Military life surrounded him from childhood. Greenwood entered service before the turn of the century and went to South Africa during the Second Boer War, serving first with the City of London Imperial Volunteers and later with the South African Light Horse and South African Constabulary. Those early years gave him experience of campaigning long before the conflict that would make his name.

With the First World War underway, Greenwood returned to military service and was commissioned as a temporary captain in the 9th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He arrived in France in September 1915 and was soon tested in battle. During the fighting near Hill 70 at Loos on 26 September 1915, his conduct resulted in the award of the Military Cross. The award was announced in January 1916, although no individual citation describing the action was published in the London Gazette.

Greenwood's reputation for courage grew dramatically during the German offensives of 1918. On 23 March, during two heavy enemy attacks made under cover of mist, the battalion suffered badly from a machine gun that had moved dangerously close to its position. Greenwood, then a temporary major, went forward with an NCO under intense fire, confronted men who had taken cover with the weapon, and ensured that the machine gun was brought back into action against the enemy. His Distinguished Service Order, gazetted on 26 July 1918, recognised his conspicuous gallantry, devotion to duty, and exceptional personal daring.

Only months later Greenwood earned a Bar to the Distinguished Service Order. During an attack in August 1918, he was ill but refused to leave his battalion. He led the first line forward, was injured by a shell burst, yet continued to the objective. At the next position he reorganised his own troops together with another battalion, established a defensive line, and defeated two enemy counterattacks. The following day, when heavy machine gun fire stopped the advance, he personally carried out a reconnaissance that helped his force work around the enemy flank. His citation, gazetted on 2 December 1918, praised the example of courage and devotion to duty he set for every rank under his command.

Then came the actions that placed Harry Greenwood among Britain's most celebrated soldiers of the First World War. On 23 and 24 October 1918, while serving as acting lieutenant colonel and commanding the 9th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Greenwood led his men during fighting around Ovillers and south of Poix-du-Nord. When a machine gun post stopped the battalion's advance and inflicted casualties, he rushed it single-handedly and killed the crew. At the entrance to Ovillers, accompanied by only two battalion runners, he attacked another machine gun position. Later, with his force nearly surrounded, Greenwood led his troops forward against the enemy and captured the final objective together with 150 prisoners, eight machine guns and a field gun.

The fighting continued on 24 October. Greenwood again attacked a machine gun position and directed his battalion under heavy fire as it captured and held its objective despite severe casualties. During the subsequent advance toward Grand Gay Farm Road, his handling of the battalion helped secure both his brigade's flank and that of the division. His Victoria Cross citation, published in the London Gazette in December 1918, concluded with a remarkable judgment on his conduct: "His valour and leading during two days of fighting were beyond all praise."

Greenwood survived a war in which he had been wounded three times and Mentioned in Despatches three times. King George V personally invested him with the Victoria Cross and the Bar to his DSO at Buckingham Palace on 8 May 1919. His wartime record had progressed from Military Cross recipient to battalion commander and Victoria Cross holder in little more than three years of active service on the Western Front.

His military story was not finished. After returning to civilian business and spending part of the interwar period working in Africa, Greenwood volunteered again during the Second World War. He served with the Pioneer Corps, eventually commanding No. 12 Pioneer Depot and overseeing a large organisation responsible for training and essential wartime labour. His work in reorganising and commanding the Pioneer Corps was recognised in the 1944 Birthday Honours, when Major, temporary Lieutenant Colonel, Harry Greenwood VC, DSO, MC was appointed an Officer of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire. Unlike his gallantry decorations, the OBE announcement did not carry an individual narrative citation.

Greenwood later held the rank of colonel during his Second World War service and retired with the honorary rank of colonel. He died at his home in Wimbledon on 5 May 1948, aged 66, and was buried at Putney Vale Cemetery in London. His complete medal group was later donated by his family to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry museum collection in Doncaster, preserving the honours of a soldier whose career stretched from the Boer War through both World Wars.

Harry Greenwood's Victoria Cross was the highest point of an extraordinary record, but it was not an isolated moment of bravery. From Loos to the final battles of 1918, his citations repeatedly tell the same story: when his soldiers faced the greatest danger, Greenwood chose to lead from the front.