Harold Marcus Ervine-Andrews

He held the canal line then led his surviving men to safety.

Harold Marcus Ervine-Andrews was born on 29 July 1911 in Keadue, County Cavan, Ireland. Educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, he joined the East Lancashire Regiment and served on India's North-West Frontier before the Second World War, earning a Mention in Despatches.

At Dunkirk on the night of 31 May–1 June 1940, he commanded a company of the 1st Battalion defending the Canal de Bergues. The position came under sustained bombardment and infantry attack. When German troops crossed the canal on both flanks, he led volunteers forward and fired a rifle and Bren gun from a barn roof to protect a threatened platoon. With the position burning and ammunition exhausted, he evacuated the wounded in the remaining carrier. He then brought eight surviving men back through deep water and established another defensive position.

These actions earned him the Victoria Cross. His citation appeared on page 4659 of London Gazette issue 34909, in the supplement printed on 30 July 1940 to the issue dated 26 July. The War Office notice was also dated 30 July 1940.

Ervine-Andrews continued his military career through the war and into the postwar years, retiring as a lieutenant-colonel. He later settled in Cornwall and died on 30 March 1995, aged 83. Following cremation, his ashes were scattered at his home in Gorran. His Victoria Cross is held by the Lancashire Infantry Museum and displayed at Blackburn Museum in accordance with his wishes.