Captain A. Kilby, C Company 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment, was awarded the V.C. for bravery, near Cuinchy on La Bassee canal, near the Aubers Ridge. This includes the story that Kilby was buried by the Germans beneath a cross inscribed To the memory of a brave enemy. Arthur Forbes Gordon Kilby VC MC (3 February 1885 – 25 September 1915) was an English officer in the British Army during the First World War who was unusually promoted to Captain on 1 April 1910 when he was only 25. An accomplished linguist, he was fluent in Hungarian and German, and when war broke out in August 1914 he was learning Spanish. He was posted to the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders with the 2nd Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment during the First World War. Kilby was 30 years old, when he performed an act for which he was awarded the VC and during which he died. He was killed in action on 25 September 1915 whilst leading his company attacking enemy positions near Cuinchy, on the Le Bassee Canal, on the first day of the Battle of Loos. Kilby's extreme heroism and gallantry during this attack was noted and he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross on 30 March 1916. The attached account of his actions was written by James Price Lloyd of the Welsh Regiment, who served with Military Intelligence. After the war, the government to destroyed all the archives relating to this propaganda (section MI 7b (1)). They were regarded as being too sensitive to risk being made public. Remarkably these documents have survived in the personal records of Captain Lloyd. Many of these papers are officially stamped, and one can trace the development of many individual articles from the notes based on an idea, to the pencil draft which is then followed by the hand-written submission and the typescript. The archive Tales of the VC comprises 94 individual accounts of the heroism that earned the highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross. These are recounted deferentially and economically, yet they still manage to move the reader. Date stamp: 22 May 1918. || Article with annotations.

Sergeant Gordon Garth (RAMC) spent some time with the regiment at a convent. When the regiment left a nun, as they had been so kind, took the crucifix from her belt and gave it to him. He had the shield made by a friend and added military badges. || Cross, wooden shield and military badges || || Multiple || Gordon Garth