Page 10 - Oundle Life November 2022

LEST WE
FORGET
Oundle School VC’s
In the chapel of Oundle School is a small but significant plaque commemorating three of the school’s most honoured pupils. They are Lieutenant Alan Jerrard, 2nd Lieutenant Cecil Knox, and Captain Charles
Vickers, and they are worthy of enduring respect having been awarded the Victoria Cross.
Charles Geoffrey Vickers
attended Oundle School in the
early 1900s, leaving in 1912 to study Classics at Merton College, Oxford. When war broke out in 1914, he joined the army and was commissioned into the Sherwood Foresters Regiment.
On 13th October 1915, his 21st birthday, his unit was sent to the front to take part in the Battle of Loos. The next day, in the face of heavy German counter attacks, he had to hastily organise the defence of positions in the Hohenzollern Redoubt to prevent the enemy from breaking through. His
own position was cut off and, in severe fighting, he was badly wounded just as reinforcements arrived to assist. For this action Captain Vickers received the Victoria Cross.
He was to see a great deal more action before the war ended and in 1918 was awarded the
French Croix de Guerre.
In his subsequent careers he was a
lawyer, administrator, and pioneering
systems scientist. He was knighted in 1945 following his work as a Director at
the Ministry of Economic Warfare. Lest we forget.
Stephen Abbott
Oundle & District Royal British
Legion
With grateful thanks to Oundle
School for their kind assistance.
10
www.branches.britishlegion.org.uk/ branches/oundle