Wilfred Dolby Fuller

Alone he forced fifty enemy troops to yield to his grenades.

Wilfred Dolby Fuller was born in Nottinghamshire on 28 July 1893. His father worked in the coal industry, and Fuller grew up in the mining communities around Mansfield. He attended local schools, sang in a church choir and served as a bugler in a cadet corps. Before joining the Army he worked as a pit pony driver and miner, practical employment that preceded a very different responsibility in the trenches.

He enlisted in the Grenadier Guards on 30 December 1911. Initially employed in regimental police duties in London, he later went to France and joined the 1st Battalion in November 1914. Promoted to lance corporal in December, he became associated with the battalion's bombers, soldiers trained to fight along trenches with hand grenades.

On 12 March 1915, during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, Fuller saw a party of German soldiers trying to escape along a communication trench. Acting alone, he ran toward them and threw a grenade that killed the leading man. The others, confronted with the threat of further grenades in the confined trench, surrendered. Nearly fifty prisoners resulted from the action.

The Victoria Cross recognized his initiative and the immediate effect of his attack, under fire in a confined trench. King George V presented the decoration at Buckingham Palace on 4 June 1915. Russian recognition followed with the Cross of St George, third class.

Fuller returned to the front but ill health brought further hospital treatment. He married Helena May Wheeler, a nurse, in March 1916 and was medically discharged that October. Attempts to resume mining were limited by his health; he also worked for a tramway company before joining the Somerset Constabulary in 1919.

He served at several Somerset stations, including Milverton, Ilminster, Clevedon and Nunney. He retired on medical grounds in July 1940 and lived at Frome. He and Helena raised two daughters and adopted a son. Fuller died on 22 November 1947 and was buried in Christ Church churchyard, Frome. His later life continued in public service despite the health problems that had ended his Army career.

Victoria Cross citation

For most conspicuous bravery at Neuve Chapelle on 12th March, 1915. Seeing a party of the enemy endeavouring to escape along a communication trench, he ran towards them and killed the leading man with a bomb; the remainder (nearly 50) finding no means of evading his bombs, surrendered to him. Lance-Corporal Fuller was quite alone at the time.