Sgt Frank Edward Stubbs V.C.

Birth: Mar. 12, 1888
Death: Apr. 25, 1915

World War I Victoria Cross Recipient. Born in the Walworth section of London, not much is known of Stubbs’s personal life other than that he enlisted in the Army at a very young age and served with the 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers in India before his World War I service. Sergeant Stubbs was awarded the V.C. for action during the landings at W Beach during the Gallipoli Campaign, April 25, 1915, one of the group known in the press as “The Six V.C.s Before Breakfast” (the others were Capts. R.R. Willis and C. Bromley, Sgts. A. Richards and W. Keneally, and L/Cpl. J.E. Grimshaw). From Stubbs’s citation: “On the 25th April, 1915, headquarters and three companies of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the West of Cape Helles, were met by very deadly fire from hidden machine guns, which caused a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained. Amongst the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Captain Bromley, Serjeant Stubbs, and Corporal Grimshaw have been selected by their comrades as having performed the most single acts of bravery and devotion to duty.” (The citation for Bromley, Stubbs, and Grimshaw was not issued until March 15, 1917, due to War Office regulations and red tape; the citation for Willis, Richards, and Keneally, worded identically, had been issued on August 23, 1915.) Stubbs was awarded the medal for his leadership in getting his men through the wire and up the cliffs. He was killed later in the day making the assault on his company’s the final objective; his body was never recovered. Stubbs’s V.C. medal is on display at the Lancashire Fusiliers