Samuel Lewis Honey

The Canadian Schoolteacher Who Became a Victoria Cross Hero

A schoolteacher from rural Ontario went to war as a private soldier. Less than four years later, he was dead at twenty-four, having risen to lieutenant and earned three decorations for gallantry, including the Victoria Cross. Samuel Lewis Honey VC, DCM, MM did not become a hero through one isolated moment of courage. His record shows a remarkable progression of bravery, leadership and self-sacrifice from trench raids in 1917 to the final Canadian offensives of 1918.

Samuel Lewis Honey was born at Conn, Ontario, on 9 February 1894, the eldest of seven children of the Reverend George E. Honey and Metta Blaisdell Honey. Before the First World War, Honey worked as a schoolteacher. On 22 January 1915, with the war only months old, he enlisted at Walkerton, Ontario, in the 34th Canadian Infantry Battalion. He left Canada aboard the SS California in October 1915 and, after training and several transfers in England, was eventually posted as a sergeant to the 78th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Winnipeg Grenadiers, part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He arrived in France in August 1916.

Honey's reputation for courage began well before the action that would make his name famous. On 22 February 1917, during a raid on German positions, he distinguished himself while helping clear an enemy communication trench and establish a blocking position despite strong resistance. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that he also personally covered the withdrawal of his own party and another squad while under intense grenade fire. Honey characteristically played down what he had done when writing home, suggesting that the other men deserved recognition just as much as he did. His Military Medal was formally announced in the London Gazette, Supplement No. 30036, on 26 April 1917. The Gazette announcement itself contained no detailed narrative citation, but the surviving biographical record preserves the circumstances of the action for which he was recognized.

Only weeks later came another test. During the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, Honey again demonstrated conspicuous leadership under fire. When his platoon commander was wounded, Honey assumed command and continued leading his men forward through extremely heavy fire until casualties forced them to dig in. He then held the position for three days while maintaining the morale of those around him. For this conduct he received the Distinguished Conduct Medal, one of the highest British Empire gallantry decorations then available to soldiers below commissioned rank. The official citation praised his "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" and his example in holding the position. The award was published in the London Gazette, Supplement No. 30234, on 16 August 1917.

Honey's battlefield performance also opened the way to a commission. He returned to England for officer training in May 1917 and was promoted to lieutenant on 2 September 1917. In October he rejoined the 78th Battalion in France, no longer as the sergeant who had won the Military Medal and Distinguished Conduct Medal, but as an infantry officer responsible for leading other men through some of the hardest fighting of the war.

His defining battle came during the Hundred Days Offensive at Bourlon Wood, near the Canal du Nord, in late September 1918. On 27 September, Honey's company commander and the other officers of the company became casualties. Honey took command under severe enemy fire, reorganized the company and continued the advance until the objective was captured. When enfilading machine-gun fire began inflicting casualties, he identified the position and attacked it single-handedly, capturing the machine guns and ten German prisoners. He then helped organize the defence of the captured position and resisted four enemy counterattacks.

The fighting did not end there. After darkness fell, Honey went forward alone to locate another enemy post. He returned, led a party of his men against it and captured the position together with three machine guns. On 29 September, he again led his company against a strong German position. The official Victoria Cross citation described his continued conduct as an example of exceptional "valour and self-sacrifice." These were not the actions of an officer briefly caught up in a single dramatic moment. They were sustained acts of leadership over several days while his battalion continued fighting through the Bourlon Wood operations.

On 30 September 1918, Honey was mortally wounded during another attack. The Canadian War Museum records that an enemy shell exploded close to him, grievously wounding both legs. He was taken to No. 12 Canadian Field Ambulance, where he died. He was only 24 years old. His Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously, with the citation published in the London Gazette, Supplement No. 31108, on 6 January 1919. The citation recognized his most conspicuous bravery during the Bourlon Wood operations, including taking command after the loss of his fellow officers, attacking the machine-gun position alone, capturing prisoners, defeating repeated counterattacks and continuing to lead until the final day of his battalion's attack.

Samuel Lewis Honey was buried in Quéant Communal Cemetery British Extension in France. His story is especially striking because his Victoria Cross was not an isolated distinction. Before he became an officer, he had already earned both the Military Medal and Distinguished Conduct Medal for courage in battle. His progression from private soldier to decorated sergeant and finally to lieutenant and Victoria Cross recipient made him one of the most remarkable Canadian soldiers of the First World War.

Today, Honey's original medal group is preserved by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, linking the young Ontario teacher directly to the battles in which he served. Yet the medals tell only part of the story. What makes Samuel Lewis Honey's life so compelling is the pattern behind them: on three separate occasions, under very different battlefield conditions, he stepped forward when leadership, courage and personal risk were demanded. At Vimy Ridge he took over when his officer was wounded. At Bourlon Wood he took command when the other officers had fallen. Again and again, when the situation became most dangerous, Honey moved toward the danger rather than away from it.

Lieutenant Samuel Lewis Honey VC, DCM, MM died only weeks before the First World War ended. He never lived to receive his Victoria Cross, but the official citation preserved the character of his final days: skill, daring, leadership and self-sacrifice in the face of overwhelming danger. More than a century later, the schoolteacher from Conn remains one of Canada's enduring Victoria Cross heroes and a powerful example of courage forged not in a single instant, but repeatedly across the battlefields of the First World War.