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Willward Alexander Sandys-Clarke

Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Summary

Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Field	Value
name	Willward Alexander Sandys-Clarke
birth_date	8 June 1919
death_date	23 April 1943 (aged 23)
birth_place	Southport, Lancashire, England
death_place	Guiriat El Atach, French Tunisia
placeofburial	Massicault War Cemetery
image	Victoria Cross Medal without Bar.png
image_size	125
allegiance
serviceyears	1941–1943
servicenumber	86517
rank	Lieutenant
branch
unit	Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)
battles	World War II
awards	Victoria Cross
relations	Peter Sandys-Clarke (grandson)

Lieutenant Willward Alexander Sandys-Clarke VC (8 June 1919 – 23 April 1943) was a British Army officer and an English 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.

Background

He was born in Southport, and was educated at Uppingham School. He married Dorothy Irene Deakin at the United Reformed Church in Belmont, Lancashire in 1941, and they lived in Egerton, near Bolton.

Details

Sandys-Clarke was a 23-year-old lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), British Army during the Second World War when he was awarded the VC.

On 23 April 1943 at Guiriat El Atach, Tunisia, Lieutenant Clarke's company was counter-attacked and almost wiped out, he being the sole remaining officer. Although wounded in the head, he gathered a composite platoon together and advancing to attack the position again met heavy fire from a machine-gun post. He manoeuvred his men to give covering fire and then tackled the post single-handed, killing or capturing the crew and knocking out the gun. He dealt similarly with two other posts and then led his platoon to the objective, but was killed when he later went forward to tackle two sniper posts single-handed.

Further information

Sandys-Clarke was related to four other recipients of the award:

Gen. Walter Congreve (Colenso)
Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (Khudaganj)
Lt. Frederick Roberts (Colenso)
Maj. William Congreve (Somme)

The medal was retained by his family and was not on public display. However, on 6th July 2025, the Daily Telegraph reported that the medal had been put up for auction at Spink & Son with an estimate of £300,000 to £500,000. https://spink.com/lot/25002000167

References

Bibliography

References

"Birth Index entry: Clarke, Wilward A. S.". ONS.
[http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/ Lancashire BMD]. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
{{London Gazette. (25 June 1943)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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