Roland Edward Elcock

He brought his Lewis gun forward and broke the enemy defence

Roland Edward Elcock was born at Wolverhampton on 5 June 1899. He enlisted in the South Staffordshire Regiment in October 1914 while under age and served overseas before being discharged. After working for the local electricity department, he re-enlisted in the 11th Battalion, Royal Scots, in June 1917. He earned the Military Medal in 1918.

On 15 October 1918 during the Battle of Courtrai, near Cappelle-Saint-Catherine in Belgium, Lance Corporal (Acting Corporal) Elcock, commanding a Lewis-gun team, moved his Lewis gun to within ten yards of enemy weapons holding up the advance. He silenced two guns and captured five prisoners. Later, near the River Lys, he attacked another machine-gun position and took its crew. The actions earned the Victoria Cross, presented by King George V on 13 February 1919.

He returned to civilian work, then joined the Indian government’s Posts and Telegraphs service in 1923. His engineering appointments took him to the Punjab, North-West Frontier and Burma. He married Amelia Rowe in 1933 and they had a daughter. During the Second World War he briefly served as a major in the Indian Army before illness prevented a planned overseas posting; no Second World War combat deployment is established. He died at Dehra Dun on 6 October 1944.