Neville Elliott-Cooper

Lieutenant-Colonel Neville Bowes Elliott-Cooper, (22 January 1889 – 11 February 1918) was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Early life Elliott-Cooper was born on 22 January 1889 at 81 Lancaster Gate, London, the youngest son of Sir Robert Elliott-Cooper, a civil engineer and builder of railways, and his wife, Lady Fanny Elliott-Cooper (née Leetham). From 1901 until 1907 he was educated at Eton, becoming a member of the Eton College Volunteers. From here he moved on to attend the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In October 1908, at the age of nineteen, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers of the British Army. In the years prior to the First World War he served with his regiment in such places as South Africa, Mauritius, and India.

When he was 28 years old, and a temporary lieutenant colonel commanding the 8th Battalion the Royal Fusiliers, British Army, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 30 November 1917 east of La Vacquerie, near Cambrai, France, during the Battle of Cambrai.

Citation

He died of his wounds while a prisoner of war on 11 February 1918, aged twenty-nine, in Hannover, Germany.

His VC is displayed at the Royal Fusiliers Museum, Tower of London, England.