The Hirsch Memorial
Photograph: Fabrice Thery
Captain Philip Hirsch was killed in action and awarded the posthumous Victoria Cross at Wancourt on 23rd April 1917.
In April 1917 the 4th Battalion, of which Captain Hirsch was in command of "Y" Company, was involved in the Battle of Arras. The 4th Battalion were to take a particularly strong point at Wancourt Tower.
Early in the morning of 23 April 1917, having arrived at the first objective, Captain Hirsch, although twice wounded, returned over fire-swept slopes to satisfy himself that the defensive flank was being established. Machine-gun fire was so intense that it was necessary for him to be continuously up and down the line encouraging his men to dig and hold the position.
He continued to encourage his men by standing on the parapet and steadying them in the face of machine gun fire and counter-attack until he was killed by sniper fire.
When "Y" Company withdrew, Captain Hirsch's body was left where it fell. However, the body was not seen again. Where Captain Hirsch had fallen, men from "Y" Company made and erected a wooden cross on the spot where he was killed. A photo of this cross is shown below.
The above information is taken from "Beyond Their Duty" by Roger Chapman. This book was specially written to commemorate the only occasion on which all 18 Victoria Crosses won by members of the Green Howards regiment were together (April to October 2001, in the Green Howards Museum). The book may be purchased from the Green Howards Museum Shop.
The wooden cross erected by the men of "Y" Company eventually fell into disrepair due to time and weather.
Ninety five years later, a replacement cross was made and placed where the original cross had been positioned by his niece Mrs P Holliday and great-nephew Mr Jarvis Browning.
A description of this commemorative act, and the action in which Captain Hirsch fell, was published in an article in "The Green Howard" by Jarvis Browning.
In October 2015, Paul Oldfield (a Battlefield Guide) reported that the replacement cross was missing and that the spot in Kestrel Copse where the memorial had stood was bare. Enquiries revealed that the inhabitants of Guemappe (a town near the memorial's location) had very generously organised a replacement granite memorial, as illustrated above.
The new memorial was installed on 18 October 2015.
The memorial will be officially unveiled in April 2017, but in the meantime on 11 November, for Armistice Day, members of municipal council, veterans and people living in Guemappe will go to Kestrel Copse to perpetuate Philip Hirsch's memory.
This is a wonderfully generous act by the residents of Guemappe, and will be applauded by all Friends of the Green Howards and Philip Hirsch's family.