Joseph Harcourt Tombs

Joseph Harcourt Tombs VC (23 Mar 1887 – 28 June 1966), born Frederick Griffith Tombs, who under the name Joseph Tombs, was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award of the British (Imperial) honours system. The VC is awarded for ‘most conspicuous bravery … in the presence of the enemy’.[1][2]

Joseph Harcourt Tombs
Born23 March 1887
Birmingham, England
Died28 June 1966 (aged 79)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Buried
Pine Hills Cemetery, Toronto
Allegiance United Kingdom
 Canada
Service/branch British Army
Royal Canadian Air Force
Years of service1912 - 1920 (UK)
1939 - 1944 (Canada)
RankCorporal (UK)
Sergeant (Canada)
UnitThe King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Battles/warsFirst World War
Second World War
AwardsVictoria Cross
Cross of St George 4th Class (Russia)

VC action

Tombs was born in Birmingham and was a 28-year-old Lance-Corporal in the 1st Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment), British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.[3] On 16 May 1915 near Rue du Bois, France, Lance-Corporal Tombs, on his own initiative, crawled out repeatedly under very heavy shell and machine-gun fire to bring in wounded men who were lying about 100 yards in front of our trenches. He rescued four men, one of whom he dragged back by means of a rifle sling placed round his own neck and the man's body.[4][5]

Later life

He was promoted Corporal in the field (24 May 1915) and after the war, emigrated to Canada where he spent the rest of his life. On 25 May 1920, Tombs enlisted in the Canadian Army in Montréal, and served as a Private in The Royal Canadian Regiment. His attestation papers are held in The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum, Wolseley Barracks, London, Ontario). During the Second World War Tombs enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and served at the Flying School in Trenton, Ontario, Canada.[6] A 1952 operation to remove some of the shrapnel still embedded in his stomach was not completely successful, and in 1964 he suffered a stroke.[7] His Victoria Cross is held by the Royal Regiment of Canada Foundation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[8]

Notes
  1. Baptised Frederick Griffith on 8 April 1877. The son of Frederick and Mary Tombs of Chester Road, Erdington, Warwick. The profession of his father was Secretary of the South Birmingham Conservative Association
  2. Clause three, Warrant recoding the conditions of award of the Victoria Cross, incorporating the increase of pension and the extension of this to commissioned officers, Special Army Order 65 of 1961 Signed by John Profumo on 30 September 1961
  3. Valiant Men: Canada's Victoria Cross and George Cross winners edited by John Swettenham, 1973, Hakkert. Many British references incorrectly state he was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1884 or 23 March 1888. The UK Government Victoria Cross commemorative paving stones program lists Birmingham as his place of birth, see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-world-war-victoria-cross-recipients His attestation papers from 1920, when he joined the Canadian Army, indicate his birthplace as Melbourne, Australia and his age as 34.
  4. "No. 29240". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 July 1915. p. 7280.
  5. The action was on 16 May 1915 not 16 June 1915 as stated in the citation published in the London Gazette.
  6. His enlistment in the Canadian Army and the RCAF both indicated he was born in Melbourne, Australia as do many reference books including Volume 2 of the Complete VC and GC work listed in the references and Find a Grave listed in External Links. The baptismal certificate (note 1) and the UK Government (note 3) confirms that he was born in England.
  7. The Victoria Cross and the George Cross: the complete history, Volume II, the First World War, 1914-1918, Methuen, 2013, ISBN 978 0 413 77751 5
  8. http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ddcarrca.htm

References
  • VCs of the First World War - The Western Front 1915 (Peter F. Batchelor & Christopher Matson, 1999)
  • Victoria Cross and the George Cross: the complete history (Methuen, 2013)
  • Valiant Men: Canada's Victoria Cross and George Cross winners (edited by John Swettenham, 1973)
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