James Ockendon, VC, MM

James Ockendon VC, MM (10 December 1890 – 29 August 1966)

• Son of Alfred and Mary Ockendon at 56, Alfred Street, Landport.
• Attended St Agatha's School
• Worked for Chalcraft's, a drapers in Russell Street, Portsmouth.
• Joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1909 as a private.
• Trained at the Victoria Barracks in Southsea
• Served in India.
• During World War I saw action in Turkey during the Gallipoli Campaign where, on 24 April 1915, he landed with his battalion on ‘V’ beach and received a bullet wound to his forehead.
• Served in Egypt.
• Married Caroline ("Carrie") Anne Green at St Luke's Church in Portsmouth on 20 August 1917.

Marriages Sep 1917
Green Caroline A Ockendon Portsmouth 2b 1017
Ockendon James R Green Portsmouth 2b 1017

• Joined the First Battalion at the Western Front in France where he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery on 28 September 1917 during the opening stages of the Third Battle of Ypres.

Citation

Ockendon was 26 years old and a sergeant in the 1st Battalion, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, British Army when the following deed led to the award of the Victoria Cross. On 4 October 1917 east of Langemarck, Belgium, Sergeant Ockendon was acting as company sergeant-major. Seeing the platoon on the right held up by an enemy machine-gun, he immediately rushed the gun and captured it, killing the crew. He then led a section to the attack on a farm, where under very heavy fire he rushed forward and called on the garrison to surrender. As the enemy continued to fire on him he opened fire, killing four, whereupon the remaining 16 surrendered.

• The award of his Victoria Cross was published in The London Gazette on 5 November 1917
• Presented with VC by George V at Buckingham Palace on 5 December 1917.
• In April 1918 he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre,
• April 1918 honourably discharged from the army on medical grounds.
• Employed in the dockyard as a crane driver after the war
• Worked as a school caretaker and then at No3 Training Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Hilsea.
• During World War II Ockendon served in the Portsmouth Division of the Home Guard.
• His portrait by the artist Eric Kennington was reproduced in Britain's Home Guard written by John Brophy and published in 1945.
• Ded in his home at Southsea on 29 August 1966
• His funeral took place at Portchester on 1 September.
• His ashes were scattered in the Garden of Remembrance.
• In 1962 Ockendon Close was named in his honour

Ockendon's medals

• Victoria Cross, Military Medal,
• 1914 Star,
• British War Medal,
• Victory Medal with MiD Oakleaf,
• Defence Medal (1939–45),
• King George VI Coronation Medal (1937),
• Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal (1953),
• Croix de Guerre (Belgium).

Reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ockendon

James Ockendon was a 26 year old action Company Sergeant Major in the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who won the Victoria Cross at ‘t Goed ter Vesten Farm on 4 October 1917.

Born in Portsmouth, Ockendon had joined the ‘Dubs’ pre-war in 1909, and was serving in India when war was declared. When the Battalion were recalled in 1914, he joined the 29th Division and subsequently fought at Gallipoli, before being sent to the Western Front in 1916.

Apparently on the eve of Battle, Ockendon’s Battalion were adressed by a General, who asked ‘who is going to win a Victoria Cross tomorrow?’, to which Ocekdon replied, ‘I am, sir, or I will leave my skin in dirty old Belgium’. Two months previously he had been awarded the Military Medal. When a platoon officer was killed by a Machine Gun and another wounded, Ockendon found himself in charge of his company and took it upon himself to charge the position, killing all but one of the Germans. He chased the survivor for some distance before bayonetting him.

After the attack Ockendon gathered the survivors of his company, and headed for ‘t Goed ter Vesten Farm. Although they were met by heavy fire, Ockendon somehow managed to convince the Germans to surrender.

Ockendon wad described as a quiet, unassuming man, and was feted when he returned to Portsmouth on leave later in 1917. He was discharged from the Army in 1918 after suffering from the effects of Gas. James Ockendon VC MM died in 1966, at the age of 75.

His son, also called James, is still a member of the Portsmouth Royal British Legion, and to this day Ockendon’s VC is the only one that I have seen outside of a display case