Commemorative paving stones are to be placed in the birthplaces of Victoria Cross recipients from the First World War. Andrew Robinson reports.
HAD they lived in peaceful times, Billy Butler, Wilf Edwards and George Sanders might never have picked up
Commemorative paving stones are to be placed in the birthplaces of Victoria Cross recipients from the First World War. Andrew Robinson reports.
HAD they lived in peaceful times, Billy Butler, Wilf Edwards and George Sanders might never have picked up a gun in their whole lives. The trio were employees of the City of Leeds Gas Department and, being in reserved occupations, need not have volunteered to fight in the Great War.
Remarkably, the three workmates showed such bravery that they won the nation’s highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy, the Victoria Cross.
All three survived the war, unlike many VC winners whose awards were posthumous.
William ‘Billy’ Boynton Butler was a private in the West Yorkshire Regiment when, on August 6 1917, he displayed courage under fire when one of his own shells landed at his feet, seconds before it was due to explode.
His VC citation said: “Private Butler picked up the shell and jumped to the entrance of the emplacement, which at that moment a party of infantry were passing. He shouted to them to hurry past as the shell was going off and, turning round, placed himself between the party of men and the live shell and so held it till they were out of danger.”
Private Butler threw the shell and took cover. It exploded almost immediately, badly damaging the trench and leaving him bruised.
“Undoubtedly his great presence of mind and disregard of his own life saved the lives of the officer and men in the emplacement and the party which was passing at the time,” according to the citation.
His work colleague, Wilfred Edwards, a private in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, also won his VC in August 1917.
When all the company officers were lost, Private Edwards, without hesitation and under machine-gun fire from a concrete fort, ran forward, bombed through the loopholes, climbed atop the fort and waved to his company to advance. He took over 30 men prisoner.
George Sanders was a corporal with the West Yorkshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales’s Own) when he won his VC in July 1916 for organising his isolated party of 30 men, defending his position from attacks for 36 hours, despite running out of water and food.
The three gas workers lived to tell their stories and served in the Home Guard in Leeds in the Seco