As an appeal is launched to honour Britain’s greatest heroes of peace and war, STEVE SNELLING looks at the local men and women who have earned the supreme awards for gallantry.

For valour: Harry Cator, Drayton-born VC winner, is among the country’s greatest heroes to be recognised by a new national memorial.

They are the bravest of the brave – the men and women whose extraordinary exploits above and beyond the call of duty have been honoured by the highest awards for valour, the Victoria Cross and the George Cross.

Their illustrious ranks include such legendary heroes as Guy Gibson of Dambusters fame, Leonard Cheshire, H Jones and the French resistance heroines Odette Sansom and Violette Szabo. And, over the years, their selfless actions spanning more than a century of war and peace have inspired millions.


Their names have been immortalised in print and on the big screen. They’ve had all manner of things named after them, from aircraft to trains, bridges to pubs and streets to entire towns!

George Cross Heroes

The George Cross Henry George Blogg (1876-1954) GC action: Off Cromer, January 9, 1917 The most highly decorated lifeboatman in the history of the RNLI, legendary Cromer coxswain Henry Blogg earned his George Cross for an act of supreme gallantry performed 23 years before the medal was instituted. As a holder of an RNLI Gold Medal awarded for his rescue of the mined steamer Fernebo in raging seas off Cromer, he was given an Empire Gallantry Medal which was later exchanged by royal command for the GC. William George Fleming (1865-1955) GC action: off Gt Yarmouth, October 21, 1922 Second only to Blogg in Norfolk lifeboat annals, Billy Fleming was another who exchanged his EGM for a GC. The Gorleston coxswain was honoured for his endeavours over a period of two stormy days to save the stranded crew of the collier SS Hopelyn which had run aground on Scroby Sands. Alfred Herbert Lungley (1905-1989) GC action: Quetta, India, May 31-June 1, 1935 Regular soldier “Joe” Lungley earned an EGM (exchanged for GC) during the rescue operation which followed the Quetta earthquake in 1935 in which 30,000 people were killed. Lungley risked his life, burrowing beneath a dangerous building to save a man trapped by the debris. He later married a Norwich woman and settled in the city. Hugh Paul Seagrim (1909-1944) GC action: Burma, March-September, 1944 Indian army officer Hugh Seagrim sacrificed himself to save hundreds of Karen tribesmen threatened with slaughter by the Japanese during a clandestine campaign in Burma. The ex-Norwich School pupil from Whissonsett surrendered in the full knowledge of his likely fate. He was duly executed after pleading for the lives of his Karen helpers. His elder brother Derick earned a VC, making them the only brothers to receive the nation’s two highest awards. Ralph Jones (1900-1944) GC action: Cowra, Australia, August 4-5, 1944 Ralph Jones left Gorleston for Australia after being invalided out of the Army with tuberculosis. Too old for active service in the second world war, he was a guard at Cowra PoW camp, New South Wales, when Japanese prisoners launched a suicidal breakout. Jones and another guard died, fighting to the last in a desperate attempt to halt the mass breakout.

But in all of that time there has never been a national memorial dedicated to the Commonwealth’s greatest heroes. Until now, that is.
Today a £250,000 appeal is officially being launched to establish a lasting memorial in Westminster Abbey dedicated to the select band of men and women who have been awarded the VC and GC.

Designed to be unveiled at a special ceremony next May, it represents, according to Didy Grahame, the long-serving secretary of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, recognition of a debt of honour that is long overdue.

“I can’t think of any group of people more deserving of such an honour,” said Ms Grahame. “After all, these men and women represent the highest of all human qualities, selfless courage. There’s nothing more wonderful than that, to be prepared to sacrifice your life to save others. That’s what all these people did, or were prepared to do. In each and every case, they knew when they carried out their acts of heroism that there was a very strong likelihood that they would be killed.”

Many, of course, were. In recent times, posthumous awards have come to outweigh those made to living recipients in the case of both decorations. Meanwhile, the number of survivors have dwindled to the point where holders of the country’s top gallantry awards have almost become an endangered species.

Of the 1350 men who have been awarded the VC since its institution at the end of the Crimean War only 16 are still alive – just six of them in this country – while the number of GC holders has fallen to 30 out of the 396 presented since its inception during the second world war.
Their paucity gave added impetus to the campaign for a memorial. As Ms Grahame explained: “We wanted the occasion to be marked while there were still some living holders around to see it.”

The idea for a joint memorial grew out of a proposal by the George Cross holders to recognise recipients of the VC with an inscription on the fourthplinth in Trafalgar Square.

But when that was rejected after a three-year wait, the association decided to turn a proposed GC commemorative stone in the nave of Westminster Abbey into a joint memorial.

The paving stone, complete with inlaid and enlarged bronze and silver crosses, will honour the living as well as the dead, including the record five VC recipients from the Royal Norfolk Regiment during the second world war, the five airmen awarded the Cross while flying out of Norfolk airbases and the 30-odd men from the region who have earned the nation’s highest honours.

Their epitaph will be the simple inscription on the nation’s belated memorial: “Remember Their Valour and Gallantry.”

• Anyone wishing to support the appeal should send their donations to: The Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial Appeal, Horse Guards, Whitehall, London, SW1 2AX.

Heroes of the Bronze Cross