John Hogan

He retook the captured trench, and brought sixteen men back.

John Hogan was born at Royton, Lancashire, in 1884 and worked in the cotton industry before enlisting in the Manchester Regiment. His pre-war service took him to South Africa and India. After entering the reserve he became a postman in Heyside, returning to the Army when war broke out in August 1914. He went to France as a sergeant with the 2nd Battalion.

On 29 October 1914, near Festubert, German troops occupied part of the battalion's trench. Two attempts to retake it had failed. Hogan and Second Lieutenant James Leach then worked into the position at close quarters, moving from traverse to traverse. Their attack recovered the trench, killed eight Germans and resulted in sixteen prisoners. Both received the Victoria Cross.

Hogan was wounded near the eye by shrapnel in December and evacuated to Britain. He learned of the award while recovering in hospital and received his medal from King George V in February 1915. He married Margaret Taylor in January that year.

His later life brought financial hardship. He pawned his medals and at times sold matches in Manchester. Public attention to his circumstances helped him obtain work, including employment as a valet. During the Second World War he worked in a munitions factory. He died in Oldham in October 1943 and was buried in Chadderton Cemetery. His medals, the subject of later disagreement over their sale or loss, eventually returned to public ownership in Oldham.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For conspicuous bravery near Festubert on 29th October, when, after their trench had been taken by the Germans, and after two attempts at recapture had failed, they voluntarily decided on the afternoon of the same day to recover the trench themselves, and, working from traverse to traverse at close quarters with great bravery, they gradually succeeded in regaining possession, killing eight of the enemy, wounding two, and making sixteen prisoners.

The London Gazette, issue 29015, 22 December 1914, page 10920.