William McNally

Captured enemy machine guns and broke attacks near the Piave

William McNally was born in Murton, County Durham, on 16 December 1894. He left school at fourteen and worked at Murton Colliery as a pit pony boy. He enlisted in the Yorkshire Regiment in September 1914 and served on the Western Front. With the 8th (Service) Battalion, part of the 69th Brigade, 23rd Division, he earned the Military Medal at Contalmaison during the Somme offensive in July 1916 after tending a wounded officer under fire. He earned a Bar to the medal near Passchendaele in November 1917 by rescuing soldiers wounded or buried by shellfire.

His battalion then moved to the Italian Front. By October 1918 he was a sergeant. During the advance across the Piave on 27 October, machine-gun fire from buildings on his company's flank halted its progress. McNally attacked the position alone, overcame the gun crew and captured their weapon.

Two days later, after his company crossed the Monticano near Vazzola, another enemy position opened heavy fire. McNally directed his platoon's covering fire, worked around to the rear and assaulted the position himself. He dispersed its defenders and captured another machine gun. Later that day, enemy forces attacked a captured ditch from both sides. He controlled his men's fire and defeated the counterattack.

These actions brought him the Victoria Cross, announced in the London Gazette supplement of 14 December 1918. King George V presented the decoration at Buckingham Palace in July 1919.

Wounded three times during the war, McNally left the Army in 1919 and returned to work at Murton Colliery. During the Second World War he joined the Local Defence Volunteers and served in the Durham Home Guard, first as a sergeant and subsequently as a lieutenant. His home-defence service earned the Defence Medal.

After the war he worked as a timber-yard foreman making pit props and remained active in his community. He retired in 1958 and died at Murton on 5 January 1976. Following a funeral with military honours, his ashes were scattered in Sunderland's Garden of Remembrance.