George Stuart Henderson VC, DSO & Bar, MC (1893–1920)

George Stuart Henderson was born on 5th December 1893 at East Gordon Farm, near the village of Gordon. He grew up in the Scottish Borders with his parents Robert and Mary, and his two younger sisters, Jessie Agnes and Elspeth. The family were farmers and Presbyterians.

George had a genuine love of animals, he'd sit in any amount of discomfort rather than move a dog or cat from its spot.  He was also a natural rider, and out with his sisters he'd always seek out ditches, fences or fallen trees to jump.  The family moved to Mount Hooly Farm near Jedburgh in 1901, and in 1904 George left home to board at Rossall School near Fleetwood in Lancashire.  A teacher there remembered him as determined in everything he did and someone who would stand no nonsense from anyone. He joined the school's Officer Training Corps and played cricket and football before leaving in 1912 for officer training at Sandhurst.

George was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment in January 1914 and posted to India.  When war broke out that August his battalion sailed for France, arriving in late September 1914.  Within weeks they were in combat around Fromelles.  George was wounded in the left arm in November but returned to the front by Christmas.

He quickly showed the qualities that would define his service.  At the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, after most of the senior officers had become casualties, George led his company to within 70 yards of the enemy trenches and held the position through several hours of daylight.  He was awarded the Military Cross.

In early 1916 his battalion moved to Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, where they took part in the attempts to relieve the besieged garrison at Kut al Amara.  During an assault on the Dujeilan Redoubt in March, George led bombing parties to clear the position, personally accounting for five of the enemy, then covered the withdrawal as one of the last men to leave.  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.  A Bar to the DSO followed for his conduct at the Battle of the Khadairi Bend in January 1917, where he was among a handful of officers who held a captured trench against determined counter-attacks.  Five of the seven officers in that fight were killed; George came through unharmed.

After further service in Baghdad and with a special force called Dunsterforce in Persia, George returned to the UK in 1919.  He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and served briefly in Ireland before being posted back to Mesopotamia in early 1920.

On the evening of 24th July 1920, around 15 miles from Hillah, his company came under sudden attack from a large force of Arab tribesmen. In the confusion the company split up and began to falter.  George rallied his men and led them forward, driving the attackers back.  He did this three times.  Wounded during one charge, he refused to leave.  Hit again as his men reached the trench they were making for, he asked a non-commissioned officer to hold him up on the embankment and said: "I'm done now, don't let them beat you." He died that night.  He was twenty-six years old.

It was recognised that without his courage and leadership, many more would have been lost.  The 2nd Battalion suffered 179 killed and 60 wounded that night, with a further 79 taken prisoner.

George was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously on 24th October 1920. His sister Jessie received it from King George V on 8th March 1921.

His grave was never found.  He is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq, alongside more than 40,000 others with no known resting place.

George's full story was told by retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert 'Rex' King-Clark in the 1975 book George Stuart Henderson: The Story of a Scottish Soldier 1893–1920. 

His medals, including the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order and Bar, and Military Cross, are held by the Museum of the Manchester Regiment.  A photograph of George is preserved in the Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre.

Born just a few miles from Gordon, George Henderson's story is one worth remembering.