John Stanhope Collings-Wells

Lieutenant-Colonel John Stanhope Collings-Wells was one of the Bedfordshire Regiment's most distinguished officers of the First World War, earning the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership in 1917 and a posthumous Victoria Cross for his conduct during the desperate fighting retreat of March 1918.

John Stanhope Collings-Wells was born on 19 July 1880 in the Chorlton registration district of Lancashire. Bedfordshire Archives cites the General Register Office index and the 1881 census, which records the family at 3 Albert Place, Rusholme, Manchester. This contemporary evidence supports Manchester rather than the later claim that he was born at Caddington Hall in Hertfordshire. He was educated at Uppingham School and attended Christ Church, Oxford, from 1900 to 1903 before becoming involved in his family's engineering business.

Collings-Wells joined the 4th (Hertfordshire Militia) Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1904. When the Militia was reorganised as the Special Reserve in 1908, the battalion became the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion. Following the outbreak of war, he was sent to France as a reinforcement for the 2nd Battalion, joining it at Locre on 6 November 1914. He was badly wounded on 12 January 1915 and evacuated to Britain.

After recovering, he returned to France with the 4th Battalion when it deployed overseas in July 1916. He became second-in-command in September and subsequently took command as acting lieutenant-colonel in October 1916. Contemporary and later regimental accounts consistently describe him as an officer whose personal example, organisational ability and close knowledge of his men inspired unusual confidence within the battalion.

His leadership was particularly evident during the Arras fighting of April 1917. On 23 and 24 April, his battalion captured and held the northern outskirts of Gavrelle despite repeated counterattacks. When the situation became confused, Collings-Wells went forward through heavy shell and machine-gun fire to reorganise the battalion. On 29 April he commanded a composite battalion in an attack on the Oppy Line. His leadership and personal bravery during these operations brought him the Distinguished Service Order. The official London Gazette citation credited his leadership in holding the captured position and in successfully forming and directing the later composite attack under difficult conditions.

Collings-Wells continued to command the 4th Battalion through the fighting later in 1917, including its service during the Third Battle of Ypres. Christ Church records that he was also Mentioned in Despatches in November 1917. His DSO was presented to him by King George V at Buckingham Palace in December that year.

The German Spring Offensive began on 21 March 1918. During the ensuing retreat across the old Somme battlefield, the 4th Bedfords were repeatedly required to fight delaying actions while British forces withdrew. In one of the actions later recognised by the award of the Victoria Cross, part of the rearguard was in danger of being surrounded. Collings-Wells called for volunteers to remain with him and hold back the enemy while the remainder escaped. His small force maintained the defence for approximately an hour and a half, until its ammunition was exhausted, while he moved among the men directing and encouraging them.

On 27 March 1918, his exhausted battalion was ordered to counterattack west of Albert near Bouzincourt Ridge. Collings-Wells placed himself at the head of the attack. The official Victoria Cross citation states that he was wounded twice but refused to leave his men, continuing to lead and encourage them until he was killed "at the moment of gaining their objective." The citation therefore presents his death as occurring as the position was being secured.

A later and more detailed regimental account, reproduced by Christ Church, gives a somewhat different final sequence. It states that Collings-Wells was wounded in both arms, was reluctantly taken to a bunker so that his wounds could be treated, and was killed shortly afterwards when the bunker received a direct mortar hit. The battalion war diary confirms his death on 27 March but does not provide enough detail to resolve the difference between these two accounts. The exact circumstances of his final moments should therefore remain qualified rather than presented as definitively established.

His Victoria Cross was announced posthumously in the London Gazette on 23 April 1918 for his conduct during the fighting of 22 to 27 March. Victoria Cross Online records that King George V presented the decoration to his parents at Buckingham Palace on 1 June 1918.

Collings-Wells was 37 years old when he was killed. He is buried in Plot III, Row E, Grave 12 of Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery, near Albert. His surviving medal group comprises the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order, 1914 Star with clasp, British War Medal 1914-1920, and Victory Medal 1914-1919 with the oak leaf denoting his Mention in Despatches. His Victoria Cross and associated decorations are held in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regimental Collection in Luton.