Frank Edward Stubbs VC (12 March 1888 - 25 April 1915) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

[edit] Biography

He was 27 years old, and a Sergeant in the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army during the First World War. He died during combat on 25 April 1915 while landing on W Beach in Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey.

Stubbs was one of the six members of the regiment elected for the award by the survivors. These were hailed in the press as 'six VC's before breakfast' ^[1], and the commander of the Allied troops at Gallipoli, General Ian Hamilton ordered that the beach be renamed 'Lancashire Landing'. ^[2]

The other five of the '6 VCs before breakfast' were awarded to Cuthbert Bromley, John Elisha Grimshaw, William Keneally, Alfred Joseph Richards and Richard Raymond Willis

[edit] 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 signal acts of bravery and devotion to duty.

—The London Gazette, No. 29985, 15 March 1917

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Fusilier Museum Lancashire (Bury, England).

[edit] References

• Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• VCs of the First World War - Gallipoli (Stephen Snelling, 1995)

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ "Frank Stubbs". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10365149&pt=Frank%20Stubbs. 
2. ^ "Lancashire Fusiliers". 1914-1918. http://www.1914-1918.net/lancsfus.htm.