Born to be a true hero
Scrapbook glimpse into boyhood of soldier who won VC twice
THE poignant childhood scrapbook of the only man to be awarded two Victoria Crosses in the First World War has been unearthed after 119 years.
Captain Noel Chavasse compiled the remarkable 209-page book as a 16-year-old with his twin Claude.
The teenage Noel, who was later fatally injured while winning his second VC, clearly felt an immense sense of patriotism.
He drew almost 100 sketches and watercolours depicting acts of derring do, including scenes from the Battle of Waterloo. Chivalrous acts by medieval knights in shining armour are also depicted and on one page are the words ‘duty at all costs’.
Noel called the book ‘Snow Flakes’ because he was fond of drawing them. Claude was primarily responsible for the text in the book, writing about the adventures of fictional soldiers. The scrapbook, dated 1900 and 1901, is being sold by militaria dealers War & Son, of Leominster, Herefordshire, for £7,000. It is being sold with the bravery medals of another member of the Chavasse family, the war hero’s nephew, also named Noel, who served as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s aide de camp in the Second World War.
The older Noel, an Army doctor, received his first VC – the highest award for valour (pictured below) – when he saved 20 wounded men under heavy shell fire on the Western Front on the same day in October 1916. He displayed ‘courage and self sacrifice beyond praise’ for retrieving the casualties during the Battle of Guillemont.
Less than a year later he received a second VC during the Battle of Passchendaele. While carrying an injured soldier he was hit in the stomach and fatally wounded. Despite his agony, he carried on tending to the injured for two days before succumbing to his wounds.
Claude served as an Army chaplain in the First World War. He was awarded the Military Cross and Croix De Guerre. He later named his son Noel in tribute to his lost brother.
The twins were raised in Oxford and both studied at the university.
Their notebook reads like a love letter to Oxford, with Noel sketching scenes of the city.
Before the Great War, the twins represented Great Britain in the 1908 Olympic Games.
The archive belonged to a private collector. Stephen Nuwar, of War & Son, said the book was ‘an extraordinary and breathtaking find’ and added: ‘Claude wrote the text, while the bulk of the illustrations were by Noel. There are scenes of Waterloo and the Boer War, knights in armour, Ottomans, but also ghost stories, steam trains, ships and snow flakes. When you read Noel’s words “to do one’s duty”, it is especially poignant considering his actions 16 years later. ‘It is interesting that the book has that title. But he could never be considered a snowflake in the modern sense, as he was one of the bravest men in the war.’ The younger Noel earned the Military Cross during the Second World War.