IN A CEREMONY HELD AT WITTON CEMETERY, BIRMINGHAM, A HEADSTONE WAS ERECTED OVER THE PREVIOUSLY UNMARKED GRAVE OF SERGEANT ARTHUR VICKERS, ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE REGIMENT. |
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13 November 2000 |
For the award of the Victoria Cross. [ London Gazette, 18 November 1915 ]. Hulloch Quarries, France, 25 September 1915, Private Arthur Vickers, 2nd Bn, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
"Under very heavy enemy fire, went out in front of his company and cut barbed wire fences which were holding up the battalion's advance. Although it was broad daylight, he had to carry out this act standing up, but his gallant action contributed largely to the success of the assault on German front-line trenches."Arthur Vickers was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on the 15th January 1916. Arthur Vickers, born on 2 February 1882 in the Aston area of Birmingham, enlisted in the 2nd Bn Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1902 after being rejected a number of times because of his height. He served throughout WWI and died in the City Hospital, West Heath, Birmingham on 27 July 1944, aged 62. Although a large number of people attended his funeral, no headstone was placed over his grave. Why this happened is unclear, but was not uncommon during the period of WWII as a number of other WWI VC recipients, who died during the Second World War, were also buried in unmarked graves, possibly because of the lack of stonemasons. Medal entitlement of Corporal Arthur Vickers VC - 2nd Bn, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
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Iain Stewart, 14 November 2000