Frank Edward Stubbs

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Frank Edward Stubbs VC (12 March 1888 - 25 April 1915) was 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.

[edit] Biography

He was 27 years old, and a Sergeant in the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 25 April 1915 west of Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, three companies and the Headquarters of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, when landing on W Beach, were met by a very deadly fire from the defending company of Ottoman troops which caused a large number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up and cut the wire entanglements notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained. Stubbs was killed later that day and his body not recovered.

Sergeant Stubbs was one of the six members of the regiment elected for the award by the survivors. These were hailed in the press as 'six VC's before breakfast' ^[1], and the commander of the Allied troops at Gallipoli, General Ian Hamilton ordered that the beach be renamed 'Lancashire Landing'. ^[2]

The other five of the '6 VCs before breakfast' were awarded to Cuthbert Bromley, John Elisha Grimshaw, William Keneally, Alfred Joseph Richards and Richard Raymond Willis

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Fusilier Museum Lancashire (Bury, England).