Victor tried to join the army at 16, but the recruiting sergeant knew his father and sent him home. However, he managed it a little while later, but was sadly killed with no known grave. His nieces and nephews, as children, used to imagine that he could be the "Unknown Soldier" who was ceremonially buried. His mother, Eliza, never really got over it, and always hoped that one day he would just walk in through the door, safe and sound. Victor's platoon came under tremendous rifle and machine-gun fire, and many were hit. He was hit in the leg about half-way between two trenches. As he was lying there, unable to get in, another man in the platoon gallantly went out to bring him in, but the Germans opened a fresh burst of fire, again hitting Victor, killing him at once and badly wounding his rescuer. Sadly, it was impossible to bring in Victor's body, but the regiment that relieved the platoon afterwards, advanced, and would have buried him. His platoon commander described him as "cheerful and plucky" and that he "met a soldiers death" He was the first "old boy" from Beaumont Council School, Warrington, to fall at the Front, and on Trafalgar Day 1915, a copy of a painting by James Clark, representing a dying soldier at the foot of the Cross, was unveiled at the school.
Linda Gaunt