By Paul Finnegan
Alfred Wilcox was born on 16th December 1884 in Aston, Birmingham[1], the seventh child and fourth son of William and Sarah Wilcox nee Walker[2]. Contemporary accounts from 1918 state that he was born in Tower Road, Aston but his birth certificate shows he was actually born in Wilton Street, Aston only moving to Tower Road later in life. William was born in Birmingham in 1852 the son of John Wilcox, a brass founder[3] and Sarah was also born in Birmingham, the daughter of Benjamin Walker who was employed in the Birmingham gun trade[4]. William and Sarah married in 1872 and by the time Alfred was born they had already had Sarah in 1873, John in 1875, Benjamin in 1877, Flora in 1879, Edith in 1881 and Walter in 1883. By 1891 they had added two more children, Selina in 1887 and Bernard in 1889 and the family were living at number 8, Court 23 Clifton Road in Aston, just a few streets away from Aston Park[5]. The smells from the nearby Aston Manor Brewery and later on the HP Sauce factory and Samson’s Vinegar works would have been familiar to the family. The family had moved to Tower Road in Aston by 1901, William working as a Gold Jeweller and had been followed into the trade by his children Edith and Alfred. Four more children and been added to the family, Ernest in 1892, Leonard in 1894, Lily in 1896 and Flora in 1899[6].
Alfred had been educated at Burlington Street School and after leaving found employment as a diamond mounter with the jewellery firm E Durban and Co of Frederick Street, Aston. He left Birmingham in 1906 and moved to London[7]. In 1911 he is lodging with the James family who also came from Aston at 57 Ferndale Road in the West Ham area of London and both Alfred and Albert James are working as diamond mounters[8]. Prior to this Alfred joined the 1st Royal Warwickshire Volunteer battalion in 1902, serving four years as a territorial in Birmingham before moving to Liverpool where he served a further three years, rising to the rank of Corporal and retiring from the Army in 1909[9].
In 1910 Alfred’s mother Sarah died[10], followed in 1912 by his father William[11]. On 6th September 1913 Alfred married Ellen Louisa Clarke at St John’s Church in Perry Barr[12] and their first child, Doris was born on 10th September 1914[13], just over a month after Britain declared war on Germany. The family home at this time was 86 Little Green Lane, Small Heath. Despite being a pre-war Territorial Alfred was neither recalled to the colours nor volunteered in the first waves of patriotism that gripped the country in the first few weeks of the war. On 25th March 1915 however Alfred enlisted with the Royal Bucks Hussars but was later dismounted and attached to 2/4th Battalion of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry[14]. Despite joining up in 1915, Alfred did not move abroad until December 1917[15] when he joined up with 2/4 Ox and Bucks who were holding the line west of La Vacqerie in trenches that made up the former German defensive position known as the Hindenberg Line.
The 2/4 Ox and Bucks were attached to 184th Brigade part of the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division and in late November 1917 they had taken part in the Battle of Cambrai. This was a significant battle as it was the first time the British had used massed tanks in an assault. On 30th November the Germans counter attacked in an attempt to regain the lost ground and succeeded in driving the British lines back several miles over ground recently won. The 184th Brigade were relieved by the 183rd Brigade on 7th September and Alfred and his comrades were to spend Christmas 1917 in the French town of Suzanne[16].
On the night of 18/19 March 1918 the Battalion returned to the front line and on 21st March 1918 the great German spring offensive began. The Kaiserslacht (Kaiser’s Battle) as it was known by the Germans was an attempt to break the allied lines using troops released from the Eastern Front following the treaty made with Russia after the overthrow of the Tsar. This was to be achieved before the American Forces, which had joined the war in 1917, could become effective on the Western Front. By 22nd March 1918 it was reported that the enemy had broken the British lines and the British Army was now in retreat. In April the Battalion fought many actions in the Lys area of France and the attempt to stem the German advance continued. By late April 1918 the German assault had stalled as their lines of communication became too stretched and once again a stalemate existed. By August 1918, refreshed by over one million American troops, the allies began a renewed assault on the German lines[17].
On 10th September 1918, Alfred’s battalion made their headquarters at the old dressing station at Laventie, south west of Armentieres. It is reported that on 12th September ‘at a few hours’ notice and in weather calculated to make any operation a fiasco, the Battalion attacked a Junction Post, a grass-bound breastwork where the enemy was offering stubborn resistance[18].’ It was during this engagement that Alfred Wilcox was to perform the actions that would earn him the Victoria Cross.
The award of the Victoria Cross to Alfred Wilcox was formally announced in the supplement to the London Gazette on 15th November 1918. The citation reads; ‘For most conspicuous bravery and initiative in attack when his company was held up by heavy and persistent machine-gun fire at close range. On his own initiative, with four men he rushed ahead to the nearest enemy gun, bombed it, killed the gunner and put the gun out of action. Being then attacked by an enemy bombing party, Cpl. Wilcox picked up enemy bombs and led his party against the next gun, finally capturing and destroying it. Although left with only one man, he continued bombing and captured a third gun. He again bombed up the trench, captured a fourth gun, and then rejoined his platoon. Cpl. Wilcox displayed in this series of successful individual enterprises exceptional valour, judgement, and initiative[19]. News of the award was reported in Birmingham in both the Birmingham Daily Post and the Birmingham Mail on 16th November 1918, the Mail giving details of his exploits after the action which earned him the VC; ‘Since then he has been in further severe fighting, and only a week or ten days ago he was severely wounded, two machine-gun bullets entering his ankle and four entering his leg. He considers that he saved himself from being riddled with bullets by, despite excruciating pain, hopping along on his sound leg towards the German gunner, who did not wait to be bayoneted but abandoned his gun. He was returned to England at once and is now lying in a hospital in Sunderland[20]. It was later reported that he was actually carried to the dressing station by eight German prisoners[21].
Whilst recovering in Sunderland Alfred became quite the local celebrity with a party being thrown in his honour. The local press reported ‘a gathering was held at the War Hospital in his honour. The gathering was a supper given by Dr Henegan to the whole of the ward in which Corporal Wilcox is[22].
The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr David Brooks reported the award of Alfred’s VC, which at the time was the eighth to a Birmingham man, to the City Council and in keeping with the honour bestowed on previous Birmingham VC winners proposed ‘the recording of the profound admiration of the Council of the heroism which earned for Corporal Wilcox and his native city so great an honour, and that a copy of the resolution be engrossed and framed and handed to him.’ Alderman (Neville) Chamberlain who seconded the motion remarked incorrectly as it turned out ‘that might be the last VC they would hear of in connection with the Great War[23].’
Alfred was finally discharged from hospital for 12 days’ leave on 19th December 1918 arriving at New Street Station and met by his wife and daughter. It was reported that his homecoming was not generally known and as such there was no demonstration on the platform. His arrival was covered in the local press and he was quoted as saying his discharge was delayed by an attack of influenza. He anticipated that he would make a full recovery from his wounds. He also alluded to a further action he had been involved in before being wounded. He was on patrol in a cornfield with an officer and two men. They turned around and were surprised to find close behind them a dozen “Jerries” who had followed their track. They had nothing to do but to sling a bomb and make a dash for their wire, reaching safety just in the nick of time[24].
At the same time that Alfred was arriving back in his home town, his adoptive town in London was trying to claim him as one of their own. News of the award of his VC was recorded in the local press and announced that a public presentation was being arranged in Leytonstone. It states that whilst in Leytonstone he lived with his wife’s parents at Dyers Hall Road and was hoping to return there as soon as a house of their own became available[25].
Alfred Wilcox was discharged from the Army on 2nd May 1919 and on 26th November 1919 was presented with his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace[26]. On 26th June 1920 he was to return to the Palace as one of three hundred and ten men attending an afternoon party given by the King and Queen in honour of all those who were awarded the VC in campaigns from the Indian Mutiny to the Russian Civil Wars of 1919. Also, in attendance was Private Arthur Vickers a fellow Aston man who had won his VC in 1915[27]. On 11th November 1920, the ceremony took place at Westminster Abbey to bury the ‘Unknown Warrior’ and an honour guard made up of VC winners lined the Abbey as the coffin arrived. Alfred Wilcox was not one of those who made up the guard[28]. It is not clear why he wasn’t there but one possible explanation is that space was at a premium and those chosen were by ballot.
In 1920 Alfred and wife Ellen were still living at 86 Little Green Lane[29] and in 1921 their third child, a boy they named Douglas was born[30]. In the years that followed Alfred attended many civic functions including the stone laying ceremony for the Birmingham Hall of Memory on 12th June 1923 along with fellow VC recipient Arthur Vickers, the event being reported in the local press ‘The Prince then quitted the platform and moved down the avenue of the Guard of Honour. Here he descried two VC men, Lieutenant (formerly) Corporal A Wilcox of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry and Corporal Vickers of 8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Wilcox was warmly congratulated by the Prince who was interested in details of his war service[31]. From here the Royal Party moved on to Handsworth Park where ex-servicemen had paraded; ‘His Royal Highness then inspected the large number of ex-servicemen consisting of 1500 members of the British Legion. Included in them were two VCs, Corporal Wilcox and Lance-Corporal Vickers[32]. At this time Alfred had joined the recently formed British Legion (later The Royal British Legion) a charitable organisation created in 1921 in the wake of the Great War to support the ex-service community. He went on to become President of the Birmingham County Branch and in this role he was to be present at the opening of the Birmingham to Wolverhampton Road on 2nd November 1927 by the Prince of Wales, an event captured on newsreel and reported in the press; ‘A large group of ex-Servicemen and women had also been assembled, representing about eighteen of the Birmingham branches of the British Legion and also a number of Smethwick branches. The Prince walked along the lines and shook hands with several of the men. The party with the Prince included Corporal Wilcox VC (president of the Birmingham County Council British Legion)[33].
On Saturday 9th November 1929 a VC Reunion Dinner was held in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords. The Prince of Wales was guest of honour and Alfred Wilcox was sat at table two, seat number sixty-seven, with CSM John Williams to one side of him and Captain Frederick Booth the other[34]. The day following this a special performance of the play ‘Journey’s End” was staged at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London in honour of the VC recipients. It was reported that several of the attendees signed a copy of the programme, one of the signatories being Alfred Wilcox[35].
During the 1930s Alfred Wilcox moved away from Birmingham but kept his association with the British Legion, becoming President of the Twickenham Branch. On 30th October 1938 Alfred attended the Ypres Memorial Service at Horse Guards Parade and as part of the ceremony he was chosen to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. In 1939 he resigned his position as Branch President and moved back to Birmingham[36].
An undated newspaper article entitled ‘Mine Host VC’ sheds light on what Alfred did when he returned to Birmingham. The article states ‘Moseley residents have welcomed into their midst one of Birmingham’s heroes of the last war, Lance-Corporal Alfred Wilcox VC., who has recently become ‘mine host’ at the Trafalgar Hotel.’ Although the article is undated it gives the ages of his sons as nineteen and twenty-five respectively which would date the article c.1940[37]. It would appear that his wife Ellen did not return to Birmingham with him as the 1945 Electoral Roll has him living at the Trafalgar Hotel with John and Lily Lloyd[38]. Whilst no longer the Trafalgar Hotel, the premises in Trafalgar Road Moseley still stands to this day and is still a drinking venue. In 1998 following a refurbishment it was renamed the Patrick Kavanagh[39].
In 1946 Alfred moved on the run the Old Engine pub in Park Road, Hockley leaving there in 1950 to take over what was to be his last pub, The Prince Arthur in Arthur Street, Small Heath[40]. Alfred was later recalled in the letters page of the Birmingham Evening Mail ‘At first we did not know he was a war hero. Someone spotted the VC after his name over the pub door.’ His nephew, John Wilcox when speaking to the Daily Mirror shed light on a different side of Alfred’s character, ‘Later during the Second World War he overheard a sailor imitating King George VI’s stammer. Alf vaulted over the bar and knocked him out with one blow[41]’.
The electoral roll for 1952 has Alfred living in Arthur Street with his son Douglas and Douglas’ wife Doreen[42]. It was at The Prince Arthur on 30th March 1954 that Alfred died of coronary thrombosis. His death was reported in the Birmingham Mail; ‘A VC of the First World War died at his home, the Prince Arthur licensed house, Arthur Street, Small Heath today. He was Mr Alfred Wilcox (aged 69) since 1940 a licensee, at one time of the Trafalgar Hotel, Moseley and in recent years of the Prince Arthur public house from which he intended to retire at the end of this year[43]. A man who was raised within earshot of the roar of Villa Park, home of Aston Villa Football Club, ended his days within earshot of the roar of St Andrews, home of Birmingham City.
Alfred’s funeral took place on 3rd April 1954 at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Aston. Ironically unlike his comrades who had died in battle and now lay in well-maintained cemeteries beneath a Portland stone headstone, Alfred Wilcox VC was buried in an unmarked grave. In later years, his nephew, John Wilcox began a campaign to locate Alfred’s grave. He had attended the funeral and remembered that he was buried not far from his own father, Alfred’s brother Leonard. Finally, on 12th September 2006, eighty-eight years from the day when Alfred won his VC, a memorial was erected in the churchyard to his memory. It reads; ‘For Valour. Near this site lies Alfred Wilcox 1884-1954, awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery in France, 12 Sept 1918.’ The memorial was paid for by the Wilcox family[44].
Alfred’s Victoria Cross along with his other medals was sold at auction in 1999 by Spink of London for £48,000. It now forms part of the Lord Ashcroft VC collection housed at the Imperial War Museum in London[45].
An interesting yet remarkable sidebar to the Alfred Wilcox story is the fate of his brothers who also joined the call to arms to fight in the Great War. Their service is alluded to in a press article from 1918, which states ‘Three brothers are in the South Staffords and one in the City Battalion of the Warwicks[46]. The story was investigated in later years by the Daily Mirror under the heading ‘A Real Band of Brothers.’ Whilst the article incorrectly states that their mother Sarah waved them all off (she died in 1910) it does state that six of Alfred’s brothers served in the war and all of them returned. Leonard served as a sergeant with the South Staffords, as did Bernard who was also to win the Military Medal. Ernest became a Regimental Sergeant Major who won the Distinguished Conduct Medal. John, Benjamin and Walter also served[47].
[1] GRO Births 1885 Mar 6d 395
[2] GRO Marriages 1872 Dec 6d 57
[3] Census Enumerators Book 1861 Piece RG9/2164/90/85
[4] Census Enumerators Book 1871 Piece RG10/3124/146/25
[5] Census Enumerators Book 1891 Piece RG12/2435/15/23
[6] Census Enumerators Book 1901 Piece RG13/2885/104/9
[7] Birmingham Mail 19 December 1918
[8] Census Enumerators Book 1911 Piece RG14/9632/78
[9] www.oxfordshireandbuckinghamshirelightinfantry.wordpress.com accessed on 21st July 2015.
[10] GRO Deaths 1910 Sept 6d 158
[11] GRO Deaths 1912 Mar 6d 200
[12] GRO Marriages 1913 Sept 6b 1618
[13] The Road to Victory (VCs of the First World War), G Gliddon, 2000
[14] ibid
[15] ibid
[16] The Story of the 2/4 Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, GK Rose, 1920
[17] ibid.
[18] ibid.
[19] Supplement to the London Gazette, 15th November 1918, p13473.
[20] Birmingham Mail 16th November 1918.
[21] Birmingham Daily Post 20th December 1918.
[22] Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette 23rd November 1918.
[23] Birmingham Daily Post 11th December 1918.
[24] Birmingham Mail 19th December 1918.
[25] Essex Newsman 29th November 1918.
[26] The Road to Victory (VCs of the First World War), G Gliddon, 2000
[27] www.victoriacross.org.uk accessed on 21st July 2015.
[28] ibid.
[29] Birmingham Electoral Register 1920, Polling District BG (no59)
[30] GRO Births 1921 Sept 6b 1492.
[31] Birmingham Daily Post 13th June 1923 p9.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Birmingham Daily Post 3rd November 1927 p11.
[34] www.victoriacross.org accessed on 26th August 2015.
[35] www.krajinazaskolou.cz accessed on 21st July 2015.
[36] ibid.
[37] Vic Cobden private collection.
[38] Birmingham Electoral Register 1945 Polling District RG (no475).
[39] moseley-society.org.uk accessed on 26th August 2015.
[40] www.krajinazaskolou.cz accessed on 21st July 2015.
[41] Daily Mirror 19th April 2014.
[42] Birmingham Electoral Register 1952 Polling District AGS (no773)
[43] Birmingham Mail 30th March 1954.
[44] www.oxfordshireandbuckinghamshirelightinfantry.wordpress.com accessed on 21st July 2015.
[45] www.lordashcroftmedals.com/collections/alfred-wilcox-vc accessed 2nd September 2015.
[46] Birmingham Evening Despatch 19th December 1918.
[47] Daily Mirror dated 19th April 2014.