William La Touche Congreve
Already decorated for heroism, ‘Billy’ Congreve was killed in action after 14 days of ever greater valour. He was one of only three pairs of fathers and sons to have been invested with the supreme award for gallantry
Inspiring story of heroism at the Somme
It would be true to say that gallantry in the service of crown and country ran through the very DNA of the Congreve family. From the Civil War through to the Spanish War of Succession and the American War of Independence, Congreves served with honour and distinction. Then, in the Second Boer War, Walter Norris Congreve (later General) earned the VC for courageous action at Colenso. For his son, William La Touche Congreve, born in 1891 and known as ‘Billy’, the die was set; after education at Eton he followed his father into the army, joining the same regiment, the Rifle Brigade.
A lieutenant at the outbreak of the First World War, Billy Congreve was sent to France with an almost immediate appointment to divisional staff. Notwithstanding this, however, he found himself very much in the thick of action – a feature of his time in France right up until his eventual death in 1916. Meanwhile, but then in another sector of the front, Billy’s father was also still serving, but now as lieutenant-general.
After involvement in the early battles around the Aisne, Neuve Chapelle, Armentières, La Bassée and the Ypres Salient, Lt Congreve’s war, going into its second year, would certainly quicken in pace and tempo. On Christmas
Day 1914, however, he made a particularly fascinating diary entry, “We have strict orders to the men not on any account to allow a ‘truce’, as we have heard rumours they will probably try to. The Germans did try. They came over towards us singing, so we opened rapid fire on them. It is the only sort of truce they deserve.”
If this war was brutal and bloody for Billy Congreve, it was about to get more so. It was also the case that the dying days of 1914 would confirm the concept of mobile warfare to have long since gone. A war of attrition and deadlock was to ensue with both sides at a loss as to how they might break the defences of the other.
By the end of January the army was locked down into trench warfare, and with Congreve noting in his diary the static nature of things. Then, during March, Billy noted a conversation with General Sir Horace Smith-dorrien when the general had apologised for there being no decoration for him in the recent London Gazette.
For his part, Billy replied, “I should have been a good more surprised if [there] had.” Clearly, however, his courage and reputation had already been recognised in higher army echelons.
By March, Billy was heavily involved in elements of a spring offensive as the fighting moved ever onwards – even if the front lines failed to. April that year saw the young officer encountering gas during actions around Hill 60, remarking, “The filthy brutes of Germans have a lot of gas which they carry in tubes, and turn on when the wind is right for it.” Throughout that summer, the war moved back and forth, including the ‘Second Ypres’, albeit with little or no overall result other than to take the lives, on almost a daily basis, of many of Billy’s brother officers.
“DURING PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS FOR THE ATTACK HE CARRIED OUT PERSONAL RECONNAISSANCES OF THE ENEMY LINES, TAKING OUT PARTIES OF OFFICERS & NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS FOR OVER 1,000 YARDS IN FRONT OF OUR LINE, IN ORDER TO ACQUAINT THEM WITH THE GROUND. ALL THESE PREPARATIONS WERE MADE UNDER FIRE” London Gazette Citation for Award of Victoria Cross: (26 October 1916)
By New Year’s Day 1916, and now a brigade major of the 76th Army Brigade, Billy had been mentioned in despatches for gallant action no less than three times. Additionally, on 15 January, came the London Gazette announcement of the award of a Military Cross for gallantry at Hooge, which followed the French awarding him the Croix de Chevalier, Légion d’honneur, for the same action. As the year progressed, so Brigade Major Congreve’s tally of gallantry awards increased with a DSO gazetted for an action on 27 March at St Eloi. It was, perhaps, typical of the man.
Going into a defended crater, being fired on as he went, Billy found himself confronted by a large group of Germans. He recorded events in his own words, “Imagine my surprise and horror when I saw a whole crowd of Boches! I stood there for a moment feeling a bit sort of shy, and then I levelled my revolver at the nearest Boche and shouted, ‘Hands up, all the lot of you!’ A few went up at once, then a few more and then the lot; and I felt the proudest fellow in the world as I cursed them.”
The official record shows that he brought in five officers and 77 men captured. Initially the recommendation was for the award of a VC. This was subsequently ‘downgraded’ to a DSO.
In action almost continually, and with little respite since the start of the war, the odds were certainly shortening for Billy’s survival or even the chances of being wounded. Such chances were shortened yet further with the commencement of the offensive on the Somme on 1 July 1916. By mid-july, however, things were going badly for the Allied armies. Losses were horrendous and yet Billy continued to put himself in harm’s way, going out on scouting and reconnoitring missions and leading his anxious father, now in command of XIII Corps, to note, “Very wrong of him to be out on such work. Bless him.” Certainly his father’s misgivings were more than well founded. On the 20th of that month, after two weeks of constant peril and utterly exhausting work on the battlefield, fate eventually caught up with him.
Going out with another officer, Major Stubbs, to assess the situation on the Longueval Front, Billy Congreve was seen in a disused gun pit using his field glasses to seek out German positions and strengths. Stubbs, feeling anxious for him, urged him, “Be careful of snipers!” but received in response just a quiet laugh as the brigade major carried on with his task. Moments later Billy walked into the main trench and spoke to a Sgt Sheen who was preparing a sap. As he complimented Sheen on his work, a German
sniper operating from a field of standing corn sought the young officer out in his sights. As Sheen recorded, “Just as he said the word ‘work’, he was hit. He stood for half a second and then collapsed. He never moved or spoke, and he was dead in a few seconds.”
The bullet had hit him low in the throat and exited from the back of his neck, with Sheen recording his death at 10.55am. It fell to Brigadier-general W. H. Greenly, the senior staff officer, to impart the sad tidings of his son’s death to Lieutenant-general Congreve, “It was at a very important and critical moment. When I told him what had happened, he was absolutely calm to all outward appearances. After a few seconds silence, he said quite calmly, ‘He was a good soldier’. That is all he allowed to appear, and continued to deal with everything as it came along in the same imperturbable and quietly decisive way.”
Major-general Haldane, writing to Billy’s pregnant wife Pamela, said, “Cameron, his faithful servant, is heartbroken. He tells me that he was anxious and remonstrated with him for working at such high pressure and going so much to the front line. I took one look at the dear fellow. He looked beautiful in his last sleep, so handsome and noble, and not a trace of pain on his face. I met men of my regiment (Gordon Highlanders) carrying wild poppies and cornflowers to lay upon him. His love for his brigade was amply returned by all ranks.”
The very next day, Lieutenant-general Congreve travelled to Corbie to bury his son, “I saw him in the mortuary and was struck by his beauty and strength of face. I felt inspired by his look, and I never felt so proud of him as I did when I said goodbye. Flowers… had been sent… by some of the men. I myself put into his hand a posy of poppies, cornflowers and daisies… with a kiss, I left him”.
It would be the 76th Brigade’s commander, Brigadier-general Kentish, who recommended Billy for the award of VC, his officers, NCOS and men having unanimously requested that his name be put forward for the nation’s highest military honour. This time, there was to be no ‘downgrade’. With the award being for consistent gallantry across two full weeks, its promulgation does not follow the general ‘norm’ for a single act of valour. Instead the citation gives us a glimpse of the intensity of action and of relentless bravery across a sustained period.
The VC was eventually gazetted on 26 October 1916, and on 1 November, Mrs William La Touche Congreve received the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace in what was described as a unique ceremony – no officer having previously attained this triple honour. For Billy’s father, devastated by the loss of his son, the war was not yet over and in June 1917 he himself was seriously wounded, losing his left hand and lower left arm.
Of Billy, Major-general Haldane eulogised,
“His splendid standard of duty, and great disregard for self, made him think too little to be done so long as anything remained to be done. He never spared himself… and [had] so high a sense of duty”.
The younger brother of William La Touche Congreve, Commander Sir Geoffrey Cecil Congreve, 1st Baronet, RN, continued the family tradition of military service and bravery, being awarded a DSO for service in Norway during 1940 before being killed in action during a commando raid on the French coast on 28
July 1941, aged 44.
“WHEN BRIGADE HQ WERE HEAVILY SHELLED & MANY CASUALTIES RESULTED, HE WENT OUT & ASSISTED THE MEDICAL OFFICER TO REMOVE THE WOUNDED TO PLACES OF SAFETY, ALTHOUGH HE HIMSELF WAS SUFFERING FROM GAS & OTHER SHELL EFFECTS. HE FINALLY RETURNED TO THE FRONT LINE TO ASCERTAIN THE SITUATION AFTER AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK, & WHILST IN THE ACT OF WRITING HIS REPORT WAS SHOT AND KILLED INSTANTLY” London Gazette Citation for Award of Victoria Cross: (26 October 1916)