By Lindsay Ash
IT could be a quiz question…What has been won by Eton College more times than any other school, 17 times by the former school of the editor of the JEP and also by two brothers who attended Victoria College?
The answer is the VC which, perhaps in modern woke times, I should explain is the Victoria Cross, which is awarded for supreme valour in times of war in face of the enemy.
It’s interesting that when one looks at the early awards, these were often presented to the products of public schools, hence the prominence of the likes of Eton, Harrow, Haileybury and Wellington in the “league table”. It would be easy to say this represented a “class bias”, which would obviously have an element of truth, but it would also ignore the fact that, in the early days and also during the First World War, it would be the products of these schools who would lead the charge and set the example in an attack, which meant they were in the best (or not) position to display valour and leadership.
Having given you an introduction, though, I’d like to focus on someone who didn’t attend an English public school but who can perhaps claim to be the finest recipient of the award, having won it not once but twice.
I first came across the name at a time when one of my early teachers, Mike Lenton, would whack you on the back (a practice now regarded as an assault) and say: “Well done, Ash. You’re a rugger player like Charlie Upham.”
At the time, this made you feel that being a rugger player was obviously a good thing and also made you slightly puzzled about who Charlie Upham was. It later materialised that he was someone with whom Mike Lenton had served during the war and who had obviously made quite an impression on him, but who exactly was he ?
Well, Charles Upham was, and remains, the only combat soldier ever to win the VC and bar (that means he won it twice) and his story is a fascinating one .
He was born in 1908 in New Zealand where he was brought up in Christchurch and worked in the farming industry, first as a sheep farmer and later as a farm valuer for the New Zealand government.
He was 30 at the outbreak of the Second World War and he enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Despite having spent five years in the New Zealand Territorial Army as a sergeant, he signed on as a private. He was quickly promoted and, in 1940, became an officer .
It was in Crete in 1941 that he won his first VC. Under heavy fire from a machine gun, he advanced with a pistol and grenades, allowing his section to take the position. When another of his sections was pinned down by machine-gun fire, he went in and placed a grenade through the window.
He then crawled to within a few yards of a machine-gun post and, again, killed the gunners using a grenade. When his company withdrew, he carried a wounded man out under fire but was subsequently blown over by a mortar shell and shot in the foot. He disregarded these injuries and remained on duty.
When his platoon was ordered to retire, he sent it back under the platoon sergeant and returned to warn other troops that they were being cut off. During the course of all this, he was suffering from dysentery as well as being wounded. When he was informed that he had been awarded the VC, he remarked: “It’s meant for the men.”
Now promoted to Captain, Upham was evacuated to Egypt where he was to receive a bar to his VC for his actions at El Alamein. During an attack in which he was twice wounded – firstly when crossing open ground and he was swept by enemy fire in order to inspect his forward positions and again when he completely destroyed an entire truck load of German soldiers with his trademark use of hand grenades – he still insisted on leading his men on the final assault during which he attacked enemy machine-gun posts armed with a Spandau gun.
He went on to destroy a German tank and, despite having his arm broken, went out to bring back men who had become isolated. His wounds then left him unable to move and he was captured by the enemy.
When the King received the recommendation to award a bar to the VC, His Majesty remarked how unusual it was and asked: “Does he deserve it?”
The reply from Major-General Kippenberger was: “In my respectful opinion, sir, Upham won the VC several times over.”
Captain Upham made several attempts to escape while he was a prisoner of war, with one attempt involving leaping from a speeding train and knocking himself out. However, he was always recaptured and eventually sent to Colditz.
Upon the liberation of Colditz, most inmates made their way home but he joined an American unit eager to fight the Germans. Instead of embarking on this missions, though, he was sent to Britain where he married his wife before returning to New Zealand.
Despite his injuries, he continued to farm successfully and it was said that for the remainder of his life he would not allow any German-manufactured machinery or cars onto his property.
Charles Hazlitt Upham died on 22 November 1994 and thousands turned out for his funeral in Christchurch.
Mike Lenton, if you’re looking down from somewhere, thanks for giving me a link to this extraordinary man.
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Lindsay Ash was Deputy for St Clement between 2018 and 2022, serving as Assistant Treasury and Home Affairs Minister under Chief Minister John Le Fondré. He worked in the City of London for 15 years as a futures broker before moving to Jersey and working in the Island’s finance industry from 2000.
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Feedback welcome at Twitter @Getonthelash2
