A SHORT wreath-laying ceremony was held on Monday, October 9, at the Worcestershire Regiment Memorial Stone, Gheluvelt Park, Worcester, to commemorate hero Pte Frederick George Dancox.
Pte Dancox served in the 4th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment during the First World War and the service was held following the soldier’s actions at The Battle of Poelcappelle in Ypres, Belgium on 9 October 1917.
It was led by by The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association and Fred Dancox laid the wreath in memory of his grandfather.
After mounting an attack at Ypres, the leading platoons dug in near a railway embankment to prepare for a German counter attack. But an enemy block-house opened fire and hampered their operations leading to officers and soldiers being mowed down. Rifle fire was useless against the block-house, so trench mortars were sent for while the men sought what cover they could.
Pte Dancox, who had been one of a party of ‘moppers-up’, worked his way under heavy shell fire from shell hole to shell hole to the back of the block-house and, with a bomb in his hand, surprised the German machine gunners inside. They surrendered and Dancox, carrying the gun which he fired throughout the day, marched his prisoners back.
He was killed in action shortly afterwards at Masnieres, France, on 30 November 1917.
His Victoria Cross came into the possession of the City of Worcester and is now on loan to the Regimental Museum at the City Museum, Foregate Street, Worcester.
