Joseph Henry Collin

He used a Lewis gun alone to hold back the advancing troops.

Joseph Henry Collin was born at Jarrow, County Durham, in April 1893 and grew up in Carlisle. His father was an engine fitter. He attended St Patrick's School and worked for the clothing firm Joseph Hepworth and Son before the First World War.

He enlisted in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in January 1915. After training in Britain he reached France in August 1916 and served with the 1/6th Battalion, including on the Somme and Ancre. He had gained experience as an acting sergeant before returning to Britain for officer training. Commissioned in August 1917, he joined the 1/4th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, in France that October.

On 9 April 1918, during the German offensive at Givenchy, Collin and the surviving men of his platoon resisted attacks on their position. With only five men left, he conducted a fighting withdrawal under close grenade and machine-gun fire. He then attacked one enemy machine-gun team alone, using his revolver and a Mills grenade to put the gun out of action.

Seeing another machine gun still firing, he took a Lewis gun to a position on the parapet. From this exposed point he engaged the enemy and continued the defence without assistance until he was mortally wounded. His Victoria Cross citation recognized the way his personal example and successive attacks delayed the larger enemy force.

He died on 9 April 1918, shortly before his twenty-fifth birthday. His parents received the posthumous Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace that July. Initially buried near Cuinchy, his remains were later moved to Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery at Lacouture. His family and regiment commemorated him through a memorial shield and the preservation of his cross at the King's Own museum in Lancaster.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For most conspicuous bravery, devotion to duty and self-sacrifice in action. After offering a long and gallant resistance against heavy odds in the Keep held by his platoon, this officer, with only five of his men remaining, slowly withdrew in the face of superior numbers, contesting every inch of the ground. The enemy were pressing him hard with bombs and machine-gun fire from close range. Single-handed 2nd Lt. Collin attacked the machine gun team. After firing his revolver into the enemy, he seized a Mills grenade and threw it into the hostile team, putting the gun out of action, killing four of the team and wounding two others. Observing a second hostile machine gun firing, he took a Lewis gun, and selecting a high point of vantage on the parapet whence he could engage the gun, he, unaided, kept the enemy at bay until he fell mortally wounded. The heroic self-sacrifice of 2nd Lt. Collin was a magnificent example to all.

Sixth Supplement to The London Gazette of 25 June 1918. 28 June 1918, Numb. 30770, p. 7618