Harry Norton Schofield

He went into close rifle fire to help recover abandoned guns

Harry Norton Schofield was born at Audenshaw, near Manchester, on 29 January 1865. Educated for an artillery career, he passed through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and received his commission in February 1884. He became a captain in 1893 and later served on the staff of General Sir Redvers Buller during the South African War.

At Colenso on 15 December 1899, British artillery had advanced into a position exposed to intense rifle fire. The detachments of the 14th and 66th Field Batteries suffered heavily, leaving guns on ground from which their crews had been killed, wounded or forced back. Attempts to bring the guns away required men to enter the same swept area.

Schofield went out during the first recovery attempt with other officers and a corporal. Their work helped withdraw two of the guns. Several participants received the Victoria Cross, but Schofield was initially appointed to the Distinguished Service Order. Following reconsideration, that appointment was cancelled and replaced by the Victoria Cross in 1901. King Edward VII presented his cross at St James's Palace on 29 October.

Schofield's South African service also included operations around Ladysmith and the Tugela and later fighting farther north. Promoted major, he retired from the regular Army in 1905 and became a member of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms.

The First World War brought him back to military employment. He worked with the British Remount Commission in Canada and the United States and later on the British Expeditionary Force's lines of communication. He held temporary lieutenant-colonel's rank during the war and retired with that rank. In June 1917 he married Dorothy Evelyn Vere Isham.

His later years were spent in London. He died at Connaught Gardens on 10 October 1931 and was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery after a military funeral. His surviving medal group preserves the cancelled DSO's replacement by the Victoria Cross alongside his campaign and coronation medals.

Official Victoria Cross citation

At Colenso, on the 15th December, 1899, when the detachmentsserving the guns of the 14th and 66th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery, had all been killed, wounded, or driven from them by Infantry fire at close range, Captain Schofield went out when the first attempt was made to extricate the guns, and assisted in withdrawing the two that were saved. In consequence of the above the appointment of this Officer to the Distinguished Service Order, which was notified in the London Gazette of the 19th April, 1901, is cancelled.

(The London Gazette of 30 August 1901, Numb. 27350, p. 5737)