Bidspirit auction | Rare Victoria Cross winner Lt

Rare Victoria Cross winner Lt Colonel Reginald F. J. Hayward VC MC signed piece and biography. He was 26 years old, and an acting captain in the 1st Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 21/22 March 1918 near Fremicourt, France, while commanding a company, Captain Hayward displayed almost superhuman powers of endurance. In spite of the fact that he was buried, wounded in the head and rendered deaf on the first day of operations and had his arm shattered two days later, he refused to leave his men (even though he received a third serious injury to his head) until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Throughout this period the enemy were attacking the company's front without cessation, but Captain Hayward continued to move across the open from one trench to another with absolute disregard for his own safety. Hayward served in the Anti-Aircraft Command as part of the Royal Army Service Corps, during the Second World War. He was also commander of prisoner of war camps from 1945 to 1947, and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. Good condition Est.