Wreath laid to remember Private Dancox recipient of the Victoria Cross.
7th October 2017
The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association will hold a short wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the heroic actions of Private Frederick George Dancox who served in the 4th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment during the First World War.
The Battle of Poelcappelle took place in Ypres, Belgium on 9 October 1917. After mounting an attack at Ypres, the leading platoons started to dig in near a railway embankment in readiness for a German counter- attack; however an enemy block-house opened fire and hampered their operations.
Officers and men were being mowed down: rifle fire was useless against the block-house, so trench mortars were sent for, while the men sought what cover they could.
Meanwhile Private Dancox, who had been one of a party of moppers-up, worked his way under heavy shell fire from shell hole to shell hole to the rear of the block-house and, with a bomb in his hand, surprised the German machine gunners inside. They surrendered and Dancox, carrying the gun which he fired throughout the day, marched his prisoners back.
Private Dancox was killed in action shortly afterwards at Masnieres, France, on 30 November 1917.
His Victoria Cross came into the possession of the City of Worcester and is now on loan to the Regimental Museum at the City Museum, Foregate Street, Worcester.
Images courtesy of the Mercian Regiment Museum