Michael Wilson Heaviside VC 1880 -1939
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Description
Memorial to Michael Wilson Heaviside V.C. (1880 -1939) St Giles' churchyard, Durham Michael Heaviside was born in Gilesgate, Durham City, and worked at Craghead colliery. http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/in_your_town/chester-le-street/durham-war-heros-battlefield-bravery-marked-100-years-on" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/in_your_town/chester-le-stree... "On the evening of 5th May 1917, the battalion returned to their barricades on the Hindenburg Line, near Fontaine-les-Croisilles, France. Only one hundred yards separated the British and German positions but the terrible fighting of the preceding days had died down. Snipers and machine gunners were, however, still active and any movement attracted deadly fire. Then about 2 o’clock the next afternoon, 6th May 1917, a sentry noticed movement in a shell hole about forty yards from the German barricade. A wounded British soldier was desperately waving an empty water bottle. Any attempt to help this soldier in daylight would result in almost certain death for the rescuers. Michael Heaviside, however, said that he was going to try. Grabbing water and a first aid bag, this thirty-six year old stretcher bearer scrambled over the barricade and out into no-man’s-land. Immediately, he came under heavy rifle and machine gun fire from the German positions and was forced to throw himself to the ground. He then began to crawl sixty yards across the broken ground from shell hole to shell hole to where the wounded soldier was sheltering. Michael returned to mining at Craghead. The effects of gas poisoning, coal dust and heavy smoking resulted in his death at his home at 14 Bloemfontein Terrace, Craghead on 26th April 1939. He was buried in an unmarked grave in St Thomas’ Churchyard, Craghead as the family was unable to afford a headstone at the time. His widow remarried later that year to John Cooper. Burial records for the churchyard were lost in a fire, but was grave was re-located by marching burial numbers to known graves and using a process of elimination for the remainder. A headstone, paid for by the family, the DLI Association and the Light Infantry, was dedicated on 1st November 1999." Victoria Cross Online. Some additional information from the Geordie Diary: Heaviside was born in 1880 at Station Lane, Gilesgate in Durham where his father, John Wilson Heaviside, was a grocer. His paternal grandfather was the Durham-based photographer Thomas Heaviside. He was the third soldier of The Durham Light Infantry to gain this award during the First World War. After the war, he returned to work as a miner at Craghead. On 26 April 1939, he died at his home at Bloemfontein Terrace, aged just 58 years, his health damaged by his years underground and his time on the Western Front. Hundreds of mourners, many wearing their Great War medals, followed Michael Heaviside’s coffin to St Thomas’s Church, Craghead, as the local Colliery Band played the “Dead March in Saul.” At the graveside, a firing party from the 8th Battalion DLI fired three volleys of shots, followed by the “Last Post” played by the battalion’s buglers, then the mourners filed past, each dropping Flanders poppies into the open grave.” -
Owner
Bolckow -
Source
Flickr (Flickr) -
License
What does this mean? All Rights Reserved (Seek permission to reuse)
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Further information
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/83226190@N00/31525488708/
Resource type: Image
Added by: Simon Cotterill
Last modified: 17 hours, 30 minutes ago
Viewed: 11 times
Picture Taken: 2018-10-17T17:38:21 -
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