Harold Ackroyd

Harold Ackroyd (18 July 1877 – 11 August 1917) was a British physician, scientific researcher, army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

An officer with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in late July–early August 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele.

Early life Ackroyd was born on 18 July 1877 in Roe Lane, Southport, Lancashire to Ellen and Edward Ackroyd. His father was chairman of the Cheshire Lines & Southport Extension Railway Company.

Ackroyd was educated locally at Mintholme College, Southport, and Shrewsbury School. Following his elder brother Edward, who had matriculated in 1893 he then entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in October 1896. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1899, before he did some travelling and then spent one year in the research group of Gowland Hopkins before continuing his medical studies at Guy's Hospital, London. He gained his BC in 1903,

Ackroyd rescued many of the wounded from the 1st South African Infantry Brigade and there is a memorial to him in the room commemorating Delville Wood at Fort Beaufort Historical Museum, South Africa. Ackroyd was subsequently killed on 11 August 1917 in Jargon Trench on the western edge of Glencorse Wood, Ypres, Belgium by a sniper. His Victoria Cross (number 851) was presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace to his widow Mabel and son Stephen on 26 September 1917.

Personal life

Ackroyd met Mabel Robina Smythe (1877–1947) matron of Strangeways Hospital, Cambridge while he was working there. They were married on 1 August 1908 and lived in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire where their children Ursula (1909–1993) and Stephen (1912–1963) were born. They then moved to Brooklands, 46 Kneesworth Street, Royston, Hertfordshire, where Anthony (1914–1988) was born.

Memorials There is a memorial to Ackroyd on the street-facing wall and inside his former house at 46 Kneesworth Street in Royston. His name on the Royston war memorial in Melbourn Street, Royston, which was unveiled on 26 March 1922. Ackroyd Road in Royston has been named after him.

The medals

His medals were purchased from his descendants in 2003 by Lord Michael Ashcroft. The proceeds from the sale were used to endow an annual medical scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Harold Ackroyd's alma mater. In addition, the college agreed to arrange an annual memorial lecture on a scientific subject connected with medicine. Ackroyd's medals were subsequently put on public display at the Imperial War Museum, London.

Replicas of Ackroyd's Victoria Cross, his Military Cross and other war medals are on display at the RAMC HQ in Millbank, London along with a painting of him winning the Victoria Cross.