James Collis

James Collis VC (19 April 1856 – 28 June 1918) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

James Collis
Born(1856-04-19)19 April 1856
Cambridge, England
Died28 June 1918(1918-06-28) (aged 62)
Battersea, London, England
Buried
Wandsworth Cemetery
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1872–1881, 1887–1891, 1914–1917
RankPrivate
UnitRoyal Horse Artillery
Suffolk Regiment
Battles/warsSecond Anglo-Afghan War
World War I
AwardsVictoria Cross (forfeited)

Details

Collis was a 24‑year‑old gunner in the Royal Horse Artillery, British Army, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. On 28 July 1880, during the retreat from Maiwand to Kandahar in Afghanistan, when the officer commanding the battery was trying to bring in a limber with wounded men under cross-fire, Gunner Collis ran forward and drew the enemy's fire on himself, thus taking their attention from the limber. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for this action. His citation read:

For conspicuous bravery during the retreat from Maiwand to Kandahar when the officer commanding the battery was endeavouring to bring in a limber with wounded men under a cross-fire, in running forward and drawing the enemy's fire on himself, thus taking off their attention from the limber.[1]

Further information
Gunner James Collis VC Headstone

He was born in Cambridge on 19 April 1856.

He was presented his VC, on Poona Racecourse, by Lord Frederick Roberts on 11 July 1881.

Collis was one of eight men whose VCs were forfeited. He was stripped of the medal on 18 November 1895 after being convicted of bigamy.[2]

He enlisted in the Suffolk Regiment, in which he served as Private, service number 16525,[3] in World War I, until discharged on medical grounds in August 1917.[2] He died, aged 62, on 28 June 1918[3] of a heart attack in Battersea hospital. He left a widow, Adela Grace Collis, who was living at Old Sapper's Lines, Mayo Road, Poona, India.[3] At his funeral his coffin was draped with the Union Flag and borne on a gun carriage escorted by a military firing party. At Earlsfield Cemetery, Wandsworth he was given full military honours and there was no mention of his crime or the forfeiture of the Victoria Cross. Although his burial, in Plot B, Section 20, grave 295 was registered with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission[3][4] (initially omitting the postnominal VC),[5] for 80 years he lay in an unmarked pauper's grave, with no headstone to acknowledge his act of bravery in the service of his country. On 22 May 1998 a ceremony was held at Wandsworth Council's Earlsfield Cemetery in Magdalen Road to mark the erection of a headstone, resplendent with the carving of his Victoria Cross.[6]

On Collis' death his sister made a plea to King George V to restore her brother's name to the VC register. She received a sympathetic reply from the King's private secretary Lord Stamfordham who while denying the request did support the proposal that Gunner Collis' name should be inscribed with those of other VC recipients on the tablets of the Royal Artillery Victoria Cross Memorial. When the subject of forfeiture was again raised, the King's view that "no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited" was expressed in another letter by Lord Stamfordham on 20 July 1920. There is no evidence to support the suggestion that this was in response to the earlier petition from the sister of James Collis.[7]

The medal was bought by Lord Ashcroft in 2014 and is now in the Imperial War Museum, London.[8]

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References
  1. "No. 24973". The London Gazette. 17 May 1881. p. 2553.
  2. COLLIS Archived 28 October 2004 at the Wayback Machine
  3. CWGC Casualty Record.
  4. He could qualify for registration had he died serving during the war or his death, after discharge, was medically attributed to effects of service in the war. The latter criterion appears to have been the case.
  5. CWGC Casualty Record - entry in published war graves register, Index London No I, Wandsworth Cemetery. The VC does not appear on the printed record.
  6. JAMES COLLIS VC at www.victoriacross.org.uk
  7. John Percival. For valour: the Victoria Cross in action, Thames Methuen, London, 1985.
  8. Ashcroft, Lord (23 October 2014). "The hero who was stripped of his Victoria Cross". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
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