Ellis Wellwood Sifton VC (12 October 1891 – 9 April 1917) was a Canadian 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.
Sifton was born in Wallacetown, Ontario and was a farmer when he enlisted. One of four soldiers to earn the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Vimy Ridge (the others were Thain Wendell MacDowell, William Johnstone Milne and John George Pattison), Sifton was 25 years old, and a Lance Sergeant in the 18th (Western Ontario) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
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On 9 April 1917 at Neuville-St.-Vaast, France,[1] during an attack on enemy trenches, Lance-Sergeant Sifton's company was held up by machine-gun fire.[1]
An extract from the London Gazette, dated 8 June 1917, indicated his Victoria Cross citation read:
During an attack on Vimy Ridge, "C" Company of the 18th Battalion was held up during its advance by German machine gunners who had survived the artillery barrage by taking refuge in concrete shelters.[1] As the Canadians moved forward, the enemy's machine guns swept the battlefield, causing heavy casualties. Sifton saw the enemy's machine gun nest first. He jumped up, rushed forward and leapt into the trench. He then charged into the enemy gun crew and knocked the gun over before turning on the gunners with his bayonet, killing each man.[1] More Canadians hurried forward, but not before a small German party moved down the trench towards Sifton. He used his bayonet and his rifle as a club to fight them off until help arrived. Despite these efforts, Sifton was killed during the fighting.[1]