Frank McNess Tales of the V.C.
Frederick McNess VC (22 January 1892 – 4 May 1956) was an English born Scottish 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.
McNess was 24 years old, and a Lance-Sergeant in the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place during the Battle of the Somme at a German stronghold known to the British as The Quadrilateralfor which he was awarded the VC. Citation:
On 15 September 1916 near Ginchy, France, during a period of severe fighting, Lance-Sergeant McNess led his men with great dash in the face of heavy shell and machine-gun fire. When the first line of the enemy trenches was reached, it was found that the left flank was exposed and that the enemy were bombing down the trench. Sergeant McNess thereupon organised and led a counter-attack and although he was very severely wounded in the neck and jaw, did not give up. Finally he established a lock and continued encouraging his men and throwing bombs until exhausted by loss of blood.
He later achieved the rank of Sergeant. His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Guards Regimental Headquarters (Scots Guards RHQ), Wellington Barracks, London, England. 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: 18 April 1918.
Article with annotations.
CONTRIBUTOR
Jeremy Arter
DATE
1916-09-15
LANGUAGE
eng
ITEMS
7
INSTITUTION
Europeana 1914-1918
PROGRESS
METADATA
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