Job Henry Charles Drain

He brought horse teams under fire to recover abandoned guns.

Job Henry Charles Drain was born at Barking, Essex, on 15 October 1895. He came from a working family with army connections and enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in August 1912. He went to France in August 1914 as a driver with the 37th Battery, entering the opening campaign of the First World War.

On 26 August at Le Cateau, British artillerymen were ordered to withdraw while enemy troops pressed close to the gun positions. Captain Douglas Reynolds organised an attempt to bring out guns that would otherwise be lost. Drain and fellow driver Frederick Luke volunteered to take their teams forward.

They brought the horses into the exposed position under heavy rifle and artillery fire, with enemy infantry nearby, and helped recover a gun. Their willingness to return across the dangerous ground gave the battery a means of saving equipment essential to the army's retreat. Reynolds, Drain and Luke each received the Victoria Cross.

Drain was also mentioned in despatches in October 1914. King George V presented his cross at Locon on 1 December. He remained in the army through the war, rose to sergeant and was demobilised in 1919, retaining a reserve connection until 1924.

He married Patricia Murray in 1919, and they had two children. His civilian jobs included work as a Whitehall messenger, a porter at Billingsgate fish market and a London bus driver. In 1920 he took part in the Victoria Cross guard associated with the burial of the Unknown Warrior. He later served as a special constable at Barking.

Drain lived to receive the 1937 and 1953 Coronation Medals and remained associated with commemorations of the early war. He died at Dagenham on 26 July 1975 and was buried in Rippleside Cemetery, Barking, near the community in which he had grown up.

Official Victoria Cross citation

At Le Cateau on 26th August, as volunteers, helping to save guns under fire from hostile infantry who were 100 yards away.