Thomas Whitham

Private Thomas Whitham, VC 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards Service No. 15067

Private Thomas Whitham was a Coldstream Guardsman and Victoria Cross recipient from Worsthorne, near Burnley, Lancashire. Before the First World War he worked as a bricklayer, an ordinary working man with a wife and young children. In 1915 he enlisted for service and joined the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, entering a war that would take him from the streets and building sites of Lancashire to the battlefields of Belgium.

On 31 July 1917, during the opening day of the Third Battle of Ypres, Whitham’s battalion was advancing when a German machine gun opened fire from the flank. Its position allowed it to fire along the line of advance, cutting down men in the open and threatening to halt the attack.

Whitham acted alone. He pushed forward through his own side’s artillery barrage, passing through British shells falling ahead of him before moving under German fire. Working from shell-hole to shell-hole, he made his way toward the enemy gun position. Reaching it by himself, he captured the machine gun, together with an officer and two men. His action removed the threat, saved lives, and allowed the advance to continue.

For this extraordinary act of bravery, Private Thomas Whitham was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valour in the British Empire. His official citation recorded the action, although his surname was printed incorrectly as “Witham” — a clerical error that has sometimes followed his story.

When he returned home, Burnley honoured him as a local hero. Crowds lined the streets, flags were waved, and the town presented him with a gold watch. The Corporation also paid for his portrait to be painted. For a moment, the bricklayer from Worsthorne became one of the proudest names in Lancashire.

But the peace that followed the war did not bring security. Like many veterans, Whitham returned to civilian life and found little steady work. He went back to bricklaying, but employment was uncertain and money became scarce. With a family to feed, he was eventually forced to pawn the gold watch given to him by the town. Later, in an even more painful act of necessity, he pawned the Victoria Cross itself. The highest award his country could give him ended up displayed in the window of a Burnley pawn shop.

Burnley later tried to repair that wrong. The council bought back both the gold watch and the Victoria Cross, preserving them for the town. But for Whitham himself, the help came too late. His health had been worn down by hardship after the war. On 10 October 1924, he was admitted to the Royal Infirmary at Oldham. He died twelve days later, aged only thirty-six.

He was buried at Wheatley Lane, but it was not until 1952, twenty-eight years after his death, that a proper headstone was placed over his grave by the Coldstream Guards Association. In later years his memory was further honoured by Burnley, including the naming of a college in his honour and the placing of a plaque near the battlefield in Belgium where he had crossed through artillery and enemy fire to silence the gun.

Thomas Whitham’s story is one of courage, neglect, and remembrance. He was not a career soldier or a man who sought glory. He was a bricklayer, a husband, and a father who, in one terrible moment near Ypres, chose to go forward alone when others were being cut down. He captured the gun, saved lives, and earned the Victoria Cross.

His country gave him its highest honour. A few years later, poverty forced him to pawn it.

His name was Thomas Whitham — not “Witham” — and it deserves to be remembered.