| James Collis | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 19, 1856 Cambridge, England |
| Died | June 28, 1918 (aged 62) Battersea, London, England |
| Buried at | Wandsworth Cemetery |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Unit | Royal Horse Artillery Suffolk Regiment |
| Battles/wars | Second Anglo-Afghan War World War I |
| Awards | Victoria Cross (forfeited and re-listed) |
James Collis VC (19 April 1856 – 28 June 1918) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
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Collis was a 24 year old gunner in the Royal Horse Artillery, British Army, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. On 28 July 1880, during the retreat from Maiwand to Kandahar in Afghanistan, when the officer commanding the battery was trying to bring in a limber with wounded men under cross-fire, Gunner Collis ran forward and drew the enemy's fire on himself, thus taking their attention from the limber. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for this action. His citation read:
For conspicuous bravery during the retreat from Maiwand to Kandahar when the officer commanding the battery was endeavouring to bring in a limber with wounded men under a cross-fire, in running forward and drawing the enemy's fire on himself, thus taking off their attention from the limber.[1]
He was presented his VC, on Poona Racecourse, by Lord Frederick Roberts on 11 July 1881.
Collis was one of eight men whose VCs were forfeited. He was stripped of the medal on 18 November 1895 after being convicted of bigamy.[2]
He was born in Cambridge on 19 April 1856. He enlisted in the Suffolk Regiment in World War I and died of a heart attack in Battersea hospital on 28 June 1918 aged 62.
At his funeral his coffin was draped with the Union Flag and borne on a gun carriage escorted by a military firing party. At Wandsworth Cemetery he was given full military honours and there was no mention of his crime or the forfeiture of the Victoria Cross. For 80 years he laid in an unmarked pauper's grave, with no headstone to acknowledge his act of bravery in the service of his country. On 22 May 1998 a short ceremony was held at Wandsworth Council's Magdalen Road Cemetery to mark the erection of a headstone, resplendent with the carving of his Victoria Cross.[3]
On Collis' death his sister made a plea to King George to restore the decoration to her brother. The King was deeply touched and felt that once the medal had been awarded it should not be forfeited. His Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham sent a letter on the 26 July 1920 he expressed his views with some force. "The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even were a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the scaffold."[4]