William Henry Grimbaldeston
Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 1st Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers
- Register No.
- 497 (Alf's numbering, from The Register of the Victoria Cross, 1997)
- Rank
- Company Quartermaster Sergeant (register: Acting Company Quartermaster Sergeant) all Company Quartermaster-Sergeants →
- Unit
- 1st Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers all King's Own Scottish Borderers VCs →
- Date of action
- 16 August 1917 on this day → all of 1917 →
- Conflict / campaign
- First World War
- London Gazette
- 14th September, 1917 on this day → all of 1917 →
- Born
- 19th September, 1889 at Blackburn, Lancashire
- Died
- 13th August, 1859 at Blackburn, Lancashire
- Memorial / grave
- not known
Digest of citation
On 16th August, 1917 at Wijdendrift, Belgium, Company Quartermaster-Sergeant Grimbaldeston noticed that the unit on his left was held up by enemy machine-gun fire from a Blockhouse. Arming himself with a rifle and hand-grenade he started to crawl towards his objective, and when he had advanced about 100 yards another soldier came forward to give covering support. Although wounded, he pushed on to the Blockhouse, threatened the machine-gun teams inside with a hand-grenade and forced them to surrender. This action resulted in the capture of 36 prisoners, six machine-guns, and one trench mortar
From Alf Askin's research notes
Reproduced as Alf wrote it, c. 2000–2005. Spelling and abbreviations are his own.
GRIMBALDESTON, William Henry. (reg No. 497).
Company Quartermaster Sergeant. 1st Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers.
London Gazetted on 14th September, 1917.
Born on 19th September, 1889 at Blackburn, Lancashire.
Died on 13th August, 1859 at Blackburn, Lancashire.
Memorial not known.
Digest of Citation reads: On 16th August, 1917 at Wijdendrift, Belgium, Company Quartermaster-Sergeant Grimbaldeston noticed that the unit on his left was held up by enemy machine-gun fire from a Blockhouse. Arming himself with a rifle and hand-grenade he started to crawl towards his objective, and when he had advanced about 100 yards another soldier came forward to give covering support. Although wounded, he pushed on to the Blockhouse, threatened the machine-gun teams inside with a hand-grenade and forced them to surrender. This action resulted in the capture of 36 prisoners, six machine-guns, and one trench mortar.
Additional information:. Company Quartermaster Sergeant Grimblaldeston also held the Croix de Guerre of France.
Additional information
Company Quartermaster Sergeant Grimblaldeston also held the Croix de Guerre of France.
Visit the grave or memorial
Alf recorded the memorial as: not known
Map links open a search for the place name Alf recorded; please check opening times and exact locations before travelling. Many VC graves have since been restored by the Victoria Cross Trust.
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