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Tag Archives: Colour Sergeant


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Birth of Frederick William Hall, Victoria Cross Recipient

Frederick William Hall, VC, a Canadian 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, is born in Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, on February 21, 1885.

Hall’s father is a British Army soldier from London. Hall emigrates to Canada approximately 1910, and lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Hall is working as a clerk in Winnipeg when World War I starts. He enlists in the 8th Canadian Infantry Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles) at Valcartier Camp, Quebec, on September 26, 1914. He already has military experience. In addition to serving in the 106th Winnipeg Light Infantry of the Canadian Militia, he spends over 12 years in the British Army’s Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). He sees service in India and is awarded the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. A teetotaller, He is a member of the British Army’s Temperance Association while with the Cameronians.

Hall is 30 years old, and a company sergeant major in the 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles), Canadian Expeditionary Force, during World War I when he performs a deed for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross. The citation in The London Gazette reads: 

“No. 1539 Colour Serjeant Frederick William Hall, 8th Canadian Battalion. On 24th April, 1915, in the neighbourhood of Ypres, when a wounded man who was lying some 15 yards from the trench called for help, Company Serjeant Major Hall endeavoured to reach him in the face of a very heavy enfilade fire which was being poured in by the enemy. The first attempt failed, and a Non-commissioned Officer and private soldier who were attempting to give assistance were both wounded. Company Serjeant Major Hall then made a second most gallant attempt, and was in the act of lifting up the wounded man to bring him in when he fell mortally wounded in the head.”

During the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium, Hall discovers a number of men are missing. On the ridge above he can hear moans from the wounded men. Under cover of darkness, he goes to the top of the ridge on two separate occasions and returns each time with a wounded man.

By nine o’clock on the morning of April 24 there are still men missing. In full daylight and under sustained and intense enemy fire, Hall, Corporal Payne and Private Rogerson crawl out toward the wounded. Payne and Rogerson are both wounded, but return to the shelter of the front line. When a wounded man who is lying some 15 yards from the trench calls for help, Hall endeavours to reach him in the face of heavy fire by the enemy but is shot in the head. The soldier he was attempting to help, Private Arthur Edwin Clarkson, is also killed.

Hall has no known grave. His name is on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, honouring 56,000 troops from Britain, Australia, Canada and India whose final resting place in the Ypres Salient is unknown. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he is the son of Mary Hall, of Leytonstone, London, and the late Bombardier F. Hall.

Hall lives on Pine Street in Winnipeg. In 1925, Pine Street is renamed Valour Road because three Victoria Cross recipients resided on the same 700 block of that street: Hall, Leo Clarke and Robert Shankland. It is believed to be the only street in the Commonwealth of Nations to have three Victoria Cross recipients live on it. A bronze plaque is mounted on a street lamp at the corner of Portage Avenue and Valour Road to tell the tale of the three men.

Hill is also remembered in St. Helens, Merseyside, where he lives at the time of the 1891 United Kingdom census and uses as his home address until he leaves for Canada in 1910.

Hill’s medals are in the Canadian War Museum. The museum has acquired all three Valour Road Victoria Cross medals and they are on permanent display in Ottawa.


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Birth of Victoria Cross Recipient William Kenealy

Lance Sergeant William Stephen Kenealy VC, 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, is born in Wexford, County Wexford, on December 26, 1886.

Kenealy’s father, John, is a colour sergeant in the Royal Irish Regiment. When his father retires from the army, the family moves to the district of Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, where his father works as a check-weigher at Bryn Hall Colliery. Kenealy becomes a coal miner at age 13. Ten years later, he enlists into the army, signing up for seven years. He joins the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army, as a private during World War I.

On April 25, 1915, west of Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire, Kenealy is 28 years old when he performs an act of bravery for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross. Three companies, and the Headquarters of the 1st Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers, in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the west of Cape Helles, are met by a very deadly fire from hidden machine guns which causes a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rush up to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs are gained and the position is maintained. Among the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Capt. Willis, Serjt. Richards, and Pte. Kenealy are selected by their comrades as having performed the most signal acts of bravery and devotion to duty.

Kenealy is one of the six members of the regiment elected by their colleagues in the regiment for the award, and described in the press as “six VC’s before breakfast.” Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton, the overall Allied army commander at Gallipoli, orders that the beach be renamed Lancashire Landing because of his conviction that “no finer feat of arms has ever been achieved by the British Soldier – or any other soldier – than the storming of these beaches.”

The other five members of the regiment who receive the award as a result of the landing are Cuthbert Bromley, John Elisha Grimshaw, Alfred Joseph Richards, Frank Edward Stubbs and Richard Raymond Willis.

Shortly afterward, Kenealy is promoted to corporal and then lance sergeant. He is seriously wounded in the Battle of Gully Ravine on June 28, 1915, and dies the following day. He is buried at Lancashire Landing Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula.