16 August 2014

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

ON Saturday 23 August Eric Pickles will unveil a plaque by the High Street War Memorial commemorating the 100th anniversary of the action for which Private Sidney Godley became the first private soldier to win Britain’s highest award For Valour.

Pte Godley, who was born in East Grinstead and already commemorated with a blue plaque at East Court, received the medal for his defence of the Nimy Bridge at Mons on 23 August, 1914.

His battalion, the 4th Royal Fusiliers, was one of the first to be sent to the Western Front following the outbreak of war in August 1914.

They arrived in Belgium on 22 August to defend two bridges over the canal at Nimy and prevent the Germans surrounding the British expeditionary forces.

During a German attack, Pte Godley was wounded by shrapnel in his back, and a bullet which lodged in his skull but despite his wounds, he took over a machine-gun from his fatally-wounded commanding officer and held the position single-handedly for two hours.

He was eventually captured by the Germans, and while imprisoned in Doberitz was told by the German officer in command that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross.

Pte Godley, who remained a prisoner of war for four years, was invited to dine with the German officers one Christmas in recognition of his courage.

In 1918 he managed to escape and returned to England via Denmark, from where he sent a postcard to his family.

Unfortunately it did not arrive until the same day he did, and the first they knew of his safe return was when he bumped into his sister who was out shopping close to home.

In 1956 Pte Godley took part in celebrations marking the centenary of the institution of the Victoria Cross at Hyde Park in London. He died in hospital on 29 June 1957 and was buried with full military honours in Loughton Cemetery in Essex.

Since his death blue plaques have been placed at East Grinstead Town Council offices and 164 Torrington Drive, in Loughton, Essex, where he lived for some time.

In 1992 Tower Hamlets Council named a block of flats “Sidney Godley VC House” in honour of the former private soldier who had worked as a school caretaker in the borough.