Corporal WILFRED DOLBY FULLER, VC.
BORN: 28th July, 1893, East Kirkby, Nottinghamshire.
In 1912, he was a pony driver at the Mansfield Colliery, where his father was employed. A keen footballer, teetotaller, and non-smoker, he was a member of the Warsop Vale Church Choir and the Mansfield St Lawrence Bible Class. He was for some time a bugler in the Mansfield Cadet Corps, Greasley, Nottinghamshire, before joining the Grenadier Guards.
Fuller is a conspicuous example of the real British patriot, not the type who goes about shouting and flag-waving, but the man who sees his duty to his Country, and does it quietly and earnestly. This is proved by his conduct. He was a garrison policeman in London when he volunteered for the Front. Had he wished, he could have remained at home, doing useful and honourable work, but he knew the serious nature of the task confronting our Army, and at once left the comforts of the metropolis for the dangers of Foreign Service.
SERVICE: 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.
DATE OF GAZETTE: 19th April, 1915.
CITATION: On the 1st March, 1915, at Neuve Chapelle, France, Lance Corporal Fuller saw a party of the enemy trying to escape along a communication trench. He ran towards them, and killed the leading man with a grenade, the remainder (approximately 50 men) seeing no means of evading his grenades, all surrendered to him. Lance Corporal Fuller was quite alone at the time.
He received his Victoria Cross from King George V, at Buckingham Palace, on 4 June, 1915. In September of the same year, at the express wish of the Tsar of Russia, he was also decorated by the King, at Sheffield, with the Russian Cross of the Order of Saint George, 3rd Class.
His action was the talk of the day, and all his comrades, when congratulating him, agreed that he would be noticed for the V.C. In a letter home soon after the battle he wrote, "Look out for good news." Later he wrote, "Barber and I have been recommended for the V.C. Don't you think it an honour?"
On visiting home, Lance-Corporal Fuller received the congratulations of his fellow-townsmen of Mansfield. He was escorted to the Market Place by the Mayor, where he was the subject of an address, before being presented with a gold watch.
The Duchess of Portland shook hands with him, and the Duke of Portland paid him a tribute in a letter.
The Mayor, in reading the official account of Fuller's act, added a very interesting comment. "The Grenadier," he said, "used his grenade with unerring aim and marvellous effect, and certainly justified, if justification were needed, the name of the Regiment of which the Grenadiers were so proud."
Fuller's speech was brief, and to the point. "I only did my duty," he said. "I am going out again, and I don't mind dying for my Country."
In March, 1916, he married Helena Mat Wheeler, a nurse at the Hammersmith Hospital from Somerset.
Later the same year, Corporal Fuller was discharged from the Army on medical grounds and, towards the end of the year, joined the Somerset Constabulary.
He served at Milverton, Ilminster, Clevedon, Nunney and finally Frome, where he performed his duties from Rodden Road police station.
He retired from the police service on medical grounds in 1939, and took up residence in Frome. Wilfred and Helena had two daughters, and later adopted a son.
DIED: 22nd November, 1947, aged 54.
BURIED: Christ Church Churchyard, Frome, Somerset.
Fuller was born in East Kirkby, Nottinghamshire, and lived in Greasley, Nottinghamshire, before moving to Mansfield. When he was 21 years old, and a Lance-Corporal in the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, British Army during the First World War, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his acts on 12 March, 1915, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, France.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Grenadier Guards Regimental Headquarters in Wellington Barracks, Chelsea, London.
An Article researched by Jim Grundy of The Western Front Association and kindly supplied to us.
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The sad story that appeared in May 1919 about Mansfield's Dolby Fuller VC's struggle to find work.
“V.C. WANTS WORK.
“PLIGHT OF MANSFIELD HERO
“The daily press of Monday made known to the world the plight of Mansfield’s V.C., Corpl. W.D. Fuller, who is now at the Somerset seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare seeking for work – “begging, cap in hand, for a job,” I how one paper puts it. He is now living at 22, Moreland-road, Weston-super-Mare.
“Prior to joining the Grenadier Guards in 1912 Fuller lived with his parents (whose third son he is) at 9, Skerry-hill, Mansfield, and has at different times lived in Shirebrook and Warsop Vale. In those days he was a pony-driver at Mansfield Colliery. He went to France in November, 1914, with the Grenadier Guards, and on March 12th he performed a big bombing feat, and alone captured 50 Germans, for which he was awarded the V.C. In the same day’s Gazette appeared the award of the Cross to another man of the same battalion of Guards, Pte. E. Barber, and the two of them were the first Grenadiers to win the premier honour since the days of the Crimea. The Guards, of course, have had fewer opportunities than most regiments of the line, for they did not serve in many of the Indian campaigns, although they went to Egypt and South Africa.
“HUNTED HIGH AND LOW FOR WORK
“Fuller V.C., has until quite recently been employed as a checker in the yard of the tramway company at Weston-super-Mare. But his work there was only temporary, and with the return of the demobilised employees, many of whom have been in the company’s service for 15 years, there was no vacancy for him. Since then he has been looking for new work. “I have hunted high and low for a job, but can find nothing permanent,” he said to a Pressman who caught him on the search. He adds that he is willing to do anything, and he resents the fact that women are employed in work that he could well perform.
“Inquiries made in Mansfield on Monday show that Fuller left Mansfield in the autumn of 1917 for Somerset, having to give up his employment at Mansfield Colliery on account of his health. While he was recuperating in Somerset, his gallant conduct became known there, and he was offered employment at Weston-super-Mare. In his last letter to his parents he stated that he was getting on very well, and they did not know he was out of work.”
‘Mansfield Advertiser and North Notts. Advertiser’, 23rd May 1919
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“With the object of making a strong protest against the insufficient gratuity being paid to soldiers and sailors on leaving the forces, a mass meeting was held at Nottingham, on Sunday [31st August 1919] under the auspices of the local branch of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers.
“Mr. J.H. Sinclair, who presided, compared the lot of the soldier and the “flapper” in the Army Pay Corps. The latter, he said, was evidently regarded as being of greater value. The Executive of the federation wanted a million men to assemble in London on the 27th September to show the Government that they were no satisfied, and also that they were going to have satisfaction.
“The following resolution was moved by Mr. J.H. Harrison: - “That this meeting of war widows, dependants of the fallen, and ex-service men protests most strongly against the inadequacy of the war gratuity and demands that the minimum scale be as follows:- Men serving August, 1914 to 1915, £25; 1915 to 1916, £20; 1916 to 1917, £15; 1917 to 1918, £10; 1918 to 1919, £5. Also that this meeting demands payment for Class Z reserve service on similar lines as payment is made for reserves in Classes A and B.” He said that they were no going to “stick” the conditions any longer. The gratuity at present was insufficient, and the only way they could get it increased was by organisation.
“The motion was seconded by Mr. H. Seely Whitby.
“Mr. A. Hayday, M.P., [1] remarked that the theory of the war having broken down class prejudices, and the “toff” and Tommy sharing a “Woodbine,” was all so much nonsense now that the war is over. Class interest had developed just as bitterly as it existed before 1914. He did not complain about large sums being given to the leaders of the army and navy. What he complained about was the lack of proportion between the man at the one end of the scale and the man at the other.
“You have in the present House of Commons men who made promised during the election, and if you can only sample the composition of the House you will realise that is the rottenest House of Commons that ever existed.” That was true, because the majority of them were war-time profiteers, who made fortunes out of the troubles and trials of the State. They exploited the soldier while he was serving, an now they are exploiting him when he was demobilised by not giving adequate bonus. “I feel the minimum is totally inadequate, and for a man who has served 4½ years or five years the gratuity should not be a penny less and £100. (Applause.) It is a downright, crying shame that in a free nation like this men who fought its cause should be discarded from the army like beggars from the work-house, with a gratuity not sufficient to buy them a decent suit of clothes and not enough left to buy a present for the kiddies.”
“A telegram was read from Lord Henry Bentinck regretting his inability to be present and stating that the object of the meeting had his sympathy.
“The motion was carried.”
‘Mansfield Advertiser and North Notts. Advertiser’, 5th September 1919.
[1] Arthur Hayday, elected as a Nottingham M.P. in the post-war election lost his 17 year-old son, Harry, when his ship, the S.S. Hollington, was torpedoed in the Atlantic on
By Jim Grundy
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