Victoria Cross of Burnley-born Hugh Colvin is displayed just a mile from Muir's head office
BURNLEY-BORN Victoria Cross recipient Hugh Colvin was 27-years-old out the outbreak of the First World War.
His family moved to Romily, in Cheshire, when he was nine-years-old, and he followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a gardener.
He would later move to Belfast however, joining the 8th Regiment of the King’s Royal Irish Hussars and completing six years’ service in India prior to war breaking out in Europe.
Upon receiving a commission to join the conflict, the then Lieutenant Colvin, became part of the Cheshire Regiment’s 9th Battalion.
With offices in Burnley, Muir’s Chester head office is situated barely a mile from where Colvin’s Victoria Cross is displayed at The Cheshire Regiment Museum.
Colvin was awarded the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces for his actions on 20th September 1917, at Zillebeke near Ypres.
The citation for his Victoria Cross, as published in the London Gazette (dated 8/11/1917) read: "For most conspicuous bravery in attack. When all the officers of his company except for himself - and all but one in the leading company - had become casualties and losses were heavy, he assumed command of both companies and led them forward under heavy machine gun fire with great dash and success.
“He saw the battalion on his right held up by machine gun fire, and led a platoon to their assistance. 2/Lieutenant Colvin then went on with only two men to a dug out. Leaving the men on top, he entered it alone and came out with fourteen prisoners. He then proceeded with his two men to another dug out which had been holding up the attack with rife and machine gun fire and bombs.
“This he reached and, killing or making prisoner of the crew, captured the machine gun. Being then attacked from another dug out by fifteen men and an officer, one of his own men was killed and the other wounded. Seizing a rifle, he shot five of the enemy, and, using another as a shield, he forced most of the survivors to surrender.
“This officer cleared several other dug outs either alone or with his remaining man, taking about fifty prisoners in all. Later, he consolidated his position with great skill, and personally wired his front under heavy close-range sniping in broad daylight, when all others had failed to do so.
“The complete success of the attack in this part of the line was mainly due to 2/Lieutenant Colvin's leadership and courage."
After retiring from the Cheshire Regiment, he was appointed as a recruitment officer in Dewsbury with the rank of Major in 1938.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Cheshire Regiment Museum in Chester, barely a mile from the Muir Group Housing Association head office.
Colvin died aged 75 on 16th September 1962, and is buried in Carnmoney Cemetery, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim.
(The above picture of Hugh Colvin VC is used with the kind permission of the Imperial War Museum. The below picture of his headstone is published with the kind permission of www.victoriacross.org.uk)
