Sidney Clayton Woodroffe

He faced enemy fire and fell clearing wire for men at Hooge.

Sidney Clayton Woodroffe VC was a nineteen-year-old British Army officer whose final battle showed extraordinary courage and care for his men. Born at Lewes, Sussex, in 1895, he attended Marlborough College and won a classical scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge, but war interrupted his plans. Commissioned on 23 December 1914, he served as a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own), reaching France on 25 May 1915 for service on the Western Front.

On 30 July 1915 at Hooge, near Ypres in Belgium, a German attack using burning liquid broke through the British front. Woodroffe's position came under grenade attack from the flank and then the rear. He held his post until his bombs were exhausted, then skilfully withdrew his surviving men. He subsequently led them forward in a counterattack under intense rifle and machine-gun fire. He was killed that day while cutting wire obstacles in the open to help the attack continue.

His posthumous Victoria Cross citation, published in The London Gazette on 6 September 1915, recognised his defence of the post, orderly withdrawal and courageous return to the attack. His parents received the award from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 29 November 1916.

The family's loss extended beyond Sidney. His brothers Kenneth and Leslie also died during the First World War. Sidney has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. His brief service endures as a powerful example of leadership under fire.