Cyril Edward Gourley VC MM (19 January 1893 – 31 January 1982) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to

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and Commonwealth forces.

Early life

Cyril Edward Gourley was born in

Wavertree Wavertree is a district of Liverpool, England. It is a ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the 2011 census was 14,772. Located to the south and east of the city centre, it is bordered by various districts and suburbs such as ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and educated at

Calday Grange Grammar School Calday Grange Grammar School (abbreviated to CGGS; also known as Calday Grange, Calday Grammar or simply Calday due to the difference in spelling to the nearby village of Caldy) is a non-denominational, academically selective grammar school, f ...

and

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, graduating in 1913.

First World War service

Gourley had joined 7th Lancashire Battery of the IV West Lancashire (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

) in May 1914. He was mobilised with his unit on the outbreak of war in August 1914 and went with it to the Western Front. His battery was transferred to CCLXXVI (276) Brigade in 1916. In September 1917, he was awarded the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...

for conspicuous gallantry in putting out a fire near an ammunition dump.

Victoria Cross

Gourley was 24 years old, and a sergeant in D (Howitzer) Battery of 276th (West Lancashire) Brigade, RFA, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 30 November 1917 at Little Priel Farm, east of Epehy,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, during the Battle of Cambrai, Sergeant Gourley was in command of a section of howitzers of the

55th (West Lancashire) Division The 55th (West Lancashire) Division was an infantry division of the British Army's Territorial Force (TF) that saw extensive combat during the First World War. It was raised initially in 1908 as the West Lancashire Division. Following the out ...

. During an enemy advance, when their forces were within a few hundred yards of him, both to the front and on one flank, and though plagued by snipers, Sergeant Gourley managed to keep one gun firing. At one point he pulled the gun out of the pit and engaged a machine-gun at 500 yards, knocking it out with a direct hit. All day he held the Germans in check, firing over open sights on enemy parties, thereby saving his guns, which were withdrawn at nightfall.Anon, ''History''; Appendix VI.Litchfield, Appendix II. The citation reads: Gourley was originally denied a commission due to "defective eyesight", but later rose to the rank of captain.

Post-war

From 1919, Gourley worked for

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...

, travelling widely to open up new business for the company. On his retirement a director of the company spoke of "...his quiet, gentle courteousness and his readiness to do all he could for other people. In fact he was a jolly good man to have beside you when you were in trouble". In 1925, the Gourley family moved to Hill Close, School Lane, off Column Road, Grange,

West Kirby West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, to the north-east lies Hoylake, to the east Grange ...

; the house was later renamed Gourley Grange and the lane renamed Gourley's Lane in his honour. The gardens created by the Gourley family have now been redeveloped as a small housing estate. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Gourley was a firewatcher in Liverpool. In 1952, he moved to Haslemere, Surrey, where he died on 31 January 1982. He is buried in Grange Cemetery,

, Wirral.Findagrave
/ref> Gourley never married. The Trustees of The Cyril Edward Gourley Victoria Cross Endowment, Registered Charity 525987, set up in his honour after the First World War from local donations, provide grants to University Students who attended schools, or reside in the Hoylake and West Kirby area, subject to certain conditions.

The medal

His Victoria Cross, along with his other medals which include the Croix de Guerre, is held by the

Royal Artillery Museum The Royal Artillery Museum, which was one of the world's oldest military museums, was first opened to the public in Woolwich in southeast London in 1820. It told the story of the development of artillery through the ages by way of a collection o ...

Footnotes

References

External links

Location of grave and VC medal
''(Cheshire)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gourley, Cyril Edward 1893 births 1982 deaths Royal Field Artillery soldiers Royal Field Artillery officers British Army personnel of World War I British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Recipients of the Military Medal Victoria Cross awardees from Liverpool Alumni of the University of Liverpool People educated at Calday Grange Grammar School Burials in Merseyside