GREAT WAR V.C.
MAN WHO SAVED BATTERY
The death, is announced, at South .Milton, Kingsbridge, Devon, of MajorGenGral Ernest "Wright Alexander, V.C., C.8., C.M.G., at the ago of sixty-four. He underwent an operation a month previously (says tho "Daily Telegraph"). General Alexander, who was a native of Liverpool and joined the Royal Artillery in 1889, was one of the first to win the Victoria Cross in the Great War. He went to Franco (ho was then Major) with the British Expeditionary Foreo in 1914 and won the V.C. with the 119 th Battery, 8.F.A., at Elouges, near Mons, on August 24. Lord Ernest Hamilton in "The First Seven Divisions" gives tho following account of the episode in which General Alexander and Captain Grenfell gained the V.C:— "During the course of ono.of these withdrawals, Captain Francis Grenfell, 9th Lancers, noticed Major Alexander, of the 119 th Battery, in difficulties with regard to the withdrawal of his guns. All his horses had been killed, and almost every man in the detachment was either killed or wounded. Captain Grenfell offered assistance, which was gladly accepted, and presently he returned ■with eleven officers of his regiment and some forty men. The ground was very very heavy, and the guns had to be run back by hand under a ceaseless fire, but they were all saved, Major Alexander, Captain Grenfell, and the rest of the officers working as hard as the men.
"Captain Grenfell . was alreafly wounded, ■when he arrived, and was again hit while manhandling one of the guns,, but ho declined to retire till they were all saved. For this fine perform,'inco Major Alexander and Captain Gronfell were each awarded the Victoria Crops, Sergeanfi Turner and Davids petting the D.C.M."
Tho exbloit enabled the retirement of the sth Division to be carried out without serious loss.
Subsequently General Alexander refnied n wounded man under a heavy •fire. :
General Alexander was the son of I\fr. B. Alexander, a shipowner and a director of the Suez CanaL
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19341008.2.54
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 85, 8 October 1934, Page 7
Word Count
332GREAT WAR V.C. Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 85, 8 October 1934, Page 7
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