Joseph Harcourt Tombs

He crawled under fire to rescue four badly wounded soldiers.

Joseph Harcourt Tombs grew up in England and worked as an electrical apprentice before becoming a professional soldier. His early employment and journeys took him to Canada and to sea. He briefly served in the West Riding militia and joined the King's Liverpool Regiment's reserve in March 1912. By June 1913 he was a lance corporal.

He reached France with the 1st Battalion in March 1915. During the fighting at Rue du Bois near Festubert that May, wounded men lay exposed between the opposing positions. Tombs repeatedly crawled into the fire to bring them in. On one journey he used a rifle sling around his own neck to drag a severely wounded man. His efforts rescued four soldiers. George V presented his Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 12 August 1915. Russia also awarded him the Cross of St George, fourth class.

Wounds and their effects interrupted his infantry service. He undertook essential electrical work at Woolwich and later served with the Royal Garrison Artillery on the Forth. He left wartime service in 1919. He married Ellen Rowlands in 1917; she died in 1921. After further merchant service, he settled in Montreal and worked for Sun Life. He married Minnie Sylvia Gooding McCarthy in 1925.

Tombs maintained a connection with Canadian military reserve medical units. In December 1939 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, serving in Canada, including at Trenton, and attaining sergeant's rank. His later years brought substantial ill health. An operation in 1952 removed wartime shrapnel, and a stroke in 1964 left him dependent on care. He died in Toronto on 28 June 1966 and was buried in Pine Hills Cemetery. His life linked British infantry service, the merchant marine and Canada's armed forces across two world wars.