John Kendrick Skinner
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John Kendrick Skinner VC DCM (February 5, 1883 - March 17, 1918) was a Scottish 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.
He was 34 years old, and an acting company sergeant major in the 1st Battalion, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
During the Battle of Passchendaele on 18 August 1917 at Wijdendrift, Belgium, when his company was held up by machine-gun fire, Company Sergeant-Major Skinner, although wounded in the head, collected six men and with great courage and determination worked round the left flank of three block-houses from which the machine-gun fire was coming, and succeeded in bombing and taking the first block-house single-handed. Then leading his six men towards the other two block-houses he cleared them, taking 60 prisoners, three machine-guns and two trench mortars.
He was killed in action, Vlamertinghe, Belgium, on 17 March 1918.
Grave/memorial at Buried at Vlamertinghe New British Cemetery, Belgium. 3m W of Ypres. Plot XVI. Row H. Grave 15. Headstone.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Regimental Museum of The Kings Own Scottish Borderers (Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, England).
[edit] References
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- Scotland's Forgotten Valour (Graham Ross, 1995)
