Robert Gee

Robert Gee VC, MC (7 May, 1876 – 2 August, 1960) 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.

He was 41 years old, and a Temporary Captain in the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 30 November 1917 at Masnieres and Les Rues Vertes, France, an attack by the enemy captured brigade headquarters and ammunition dump. Captain Gee, finding himself a prisoner, managed to escape and organised a party of the brigade staff with which he attacked the enemy, closely followed by two companies of infantry. He cleared the locality and established a defensive flank, then finding an enemy machine-gun still in action, with a revolver in each hand he went forward and captured the gun, killing eight of the crew. He was wounded, but would not have his wound dressed until the defence was organised.

After the war, Gee went into politics. He defeated Ramsay Macdonald to gain a seat in the House of Commons at Woolwich East in a 1921 byelection, after a great deal of attention was given in the campaign to the contrast between Gee as a Victoria Cross holder and Macdonald as a pacifist who opposed the war.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Fusiliers Museum "(Tower of London, England)".

References

*"Elegant Extracts" - The Royal Fusiliers Recipients of the VC (J.P. Kelleher, 2001)
*Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
*The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)