The Victoria Cross is the highest award
for bravery permitted by the Commonwealth.
Prior to its inception, only officers had been eligible for decorations
of valour. Instances of brave conduct
reported by journalists covering the Crimean War helped inspire the notion that
a medal for “gallantry of the highest order”[1] be
created for all levels of service. On
the 29th of January, 1856, the Victoria Cross was made available and
today remains as the highest level of recognition a meritorious act can
receive.
In total, 1,357 Victoria Crosses have
been awarded worldwide, and three times a bar has been issued; meaning that
only three people have earned this decoration twice.[2] Ninety eight Canadians have been decorated
with the VC.[3]
One of the first awarded to a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was to
Captain E D Bellew of the 7th Battalion.
A graduate of the Military Academy at
Sandhurst, Bellew came from a long lineage of military service. He had, in fact, been born “on the high seas”
while his family was en route to Bombay India where his father, Colonel Patrick
Bellew, was to be stationed, in 1882.[4]
After several years as a lieutenant with the 18th Royal Irish
Regiment, he travelled to New Westminster, British Columbia as a harbour
construction engineer.[5]
Bellew’s sense of duty compelled him to volunteer for overseas service with the
First Contingent on the outbreak of war in 1914. He attested for service at Valcartier,
Quebec, on the 24th of September, commissioned as a Lieutenant with
the 11th Irish Fusiliers of Canada, which would be renumbered with
other BC units as the 7th Battalion.[6]
Assigned as the battalions Machine Gun
Officer, Bellew was in charge of a machine gun section, comprised
“The machine gun, which
so came to dominate and even to personify the battlefields of World War One,
was a fairly primitive device when general war began...and decidedly ill-suited
to portability for use by rapidly advancing infantry troops.”[8]
They were not in any way ideal offensive weapons, though “When established
in fixed strong-points sited specifically to cover potential enemy attack
routes, the machine gun proved a fearsome defensive weapon. Enemy
infantry assaults upon such positions invariably proved highly costly.”[9]
The Canadian decision to purchase Colt manufactured weapons as opposed to the
British issued Maxim gun was based on the ready availability of Canadian built
guns. The Colt had advantages over the
Maxim. It was lighter and less
mechanically complicated. However, it
did have a slower rate of fire and sometimes had issues with British made .303
ammunition. It was air cooled, in
opposition to the Maxim which was water cooled. This made the Maxim able to
withstand longer periods of firing, where the Colt would have to be taken out
of action if it grew too hot.[10]
Even today, machine
guns are a critical aspect of infantry firepower; but in the early stages of the
war, the underestimate of how many weapons would be needed meant that the two
machine guns at the battalion level (which would be one machine gun for every
five hundred riflemen) were supremely important to keep in good order.
This became apparent
during the Second Battle of Ypres in April of 1915. Gas attacks had created
“In mid morning the
Germans mounted another major push....Amongst the hardest hit of the units was
the 7th Battalion. Its right
hand company had been all but destroyed in six hours of shelling, and the
remainder were barely able to hold against the ever-increasing weight of the
German effort.”[11] Those Colts had to be
kept firing, barring all cost. Lt.
Bellew knew this. He had brought his
guns forward of the 7th Battalion positions and had set them up to
put concentrated fire across the front of the right edge of the line. Their post was on high ground and exposed to
enemy fire. Despite this, Bellew and his
men continually assaulted the German waves, often waiting until the enemy was
only a hundred yards distant before firing.
By this time, the
situation had become most desperate. The
Canadians were being forced back to supplemental positions, under fire all the
way, trying to escape the latent wafts of chlorine. Lt. Bellew resolved to keep his post to
attempt to hold the enemy off as long as possible. Only he and Sergeant Peerless remained of his
section. “The
right Company was soon put out of action, but the advance was temporarily
stayed by Bellew, who had sited his guns on the left of the right
Company. Reinforcements were sent forward but they in turn were
surrounded and destroyed. With the enemy in strength less than 100 yards
from him, with no further assistance in sight, and with his rear threatened...Bellew
and Sgt. Peerless, each operating a gun, decided to stay where they were and
fight it out”[12]
It was a no-win situation. “With time, however, the...German numbers began to
tell. Peerless was shot dead. Bellew was
wounded.”[13]
On his own, Lt. Bellew kept up his fire
until his ammunition was completely spent.
Not wanting the Colt to fall into enemy hands, Bellew “then seized a
rifle, smashed his machine gun”[14]
and advanced towards the enemy, continuing to resist with rifle and bayonet,
then his pistol. “Fighting until the
last,”[15]
his adversaries later reported “one machine gun crew fought so long until the
brave gunner was rendered incapable of fighting by a blow from a rifle butt.”[16]
It is believed that his resistance is “credited with having checked the German
attack on his battalion.”[17]
It was reported later by a message “Communicated
through (the) Foreign Office 31 May/15. (Bellew was) Prisoner of War at
Bischofswerde. Reported by Senior
Officer Major P. Byng-Hall, DSO of the 7th Canadian Battalion, and
forwarded through the American Embassy under date of 22 May 1915.”[18]
His award of the Victoria Cross, “For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to
duty near Keerselaere on 24th April, 1915, during the German attack on the
Ypres salient,”[19]
was kept under wraps by the British Government until he was released after the
war, “fearing he would be treated harshly.”[20]
He was, though, promoted to the rank of Captain during his captivity.
Discharged after the war, Capt Bellew
was noted to be suffering from long term effects of gas poisoning and
neurasthenia, what would be called PTSD today.
He returned to British Columbia and continued his work in construction
and surveying. Captain Bellew passed
away in his retirement at Kamloops, BC in 1961.
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