Wilwood Alexander Sandys Clarke was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Details

He was 23 years old, and a Lieutenant in the The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment , British Army during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 23 April 1943 at Guiriat El Atach , Tunisia, Lieutenant Clarke's company were counter-attacked and almost wiped out, he being the sole remaining officer. Although wounded in the head he gathered a composite platoon together and advancing to attack the position again met heavy fire from a machine-gun post. He manoeuvred his men to give covering fire and then tackled the post single-handed, killing or capturing the crew and knocking out the gun. He dealt similarly with two other posts and then led his platoon to the objective, but was killed when he later went forward to tackle two sniper posts singlehanded.

Further information

The medal

please update if you know where his medal is publicly displayed

Reference

• British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
• Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)

See also

External links

This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission.