Sergeant John Erskine VC

One hundred years ago today, Sergeant John Erskine performed the deeds that would earn him the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy. At the time, John was a Lance Corporal, Acting Sergeant, serving with the 5th Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), a Territorial Force battalion whose headquarters were in the west end of Glasgow.

Men of the 5th Scottish Rifles, somewhere in France. John Erskine (11) is second right, middle row.

John Erskine, on the right, in a ‘dug-out’, while a comrade prepares their rations.

The war diary for the 5/6th Scottish Rifles of 22nd June 1916 records:

“In the early morning, one of the largest mines ever put up on the Western front was blown at the Duck’s Bill, by the Germans, and followed by one hour’s intense bombardment of the front and support lines. The enemy attacked with about 200 men and got into our trenches, but were very gallantly counter-attacked and driven out by the 2^nd Royal Welsh Fusiliers.  A company of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who had had most of the fighting was relieved by a company of Cameronians, which in turn was relieved by “A” Company of Ours. LIEUT. STEVENSON, the Sapping Officer, was killed by a sniper while assisting in the consolidation of the crater. LANCE-CORPORAL ERSKINE was successful in bringing in two wounded men, and very gallantly went out over the open and attended to LIEUT. STEVENSON, lying beside him until a shallow trench had been dug to the spot where he lay, whereby he was brought into the trenches.”

For his actions that day, John had been recommended for the Victoria Cross. The London Gazette of 5th August 1916 confirmed the award, with the accompanying citation:

“On 22nd June 1916 at Givenchy, France, whilst the near lip of a crater caused by the explosion of a large mine was consolidated, Sergeant Erskine rushed out under continuous fire and rescued a wounded Sergeant & a Private. Later seeing his officer, who was lying in No-Man’s Land believed dead, showing signs of life, he ran to him, bandaged his head and remained with him for fully an hour, being repeatedly fired on. When assistance arrived, he helped bring the officer in, shielding him with his body to lessen the chance of him being hit again.”

John’s Victoria Cross medal forms part of the regimental museum collections of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), and can be seen on display in Low Parks Museum, Hamilton.

John Erskine did not survive the First World War. He was killed in action on 14th April 1917, still serving with the 5th (by this time 5/6th) Battalion Scottish Rifles. John has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Arras. John’s younger brother, William, had been killed in November 1916, serving with the Highland Light Infantry.

Today, John’s heroism was marked by the unveiling of a commemorative stone in his native Dunfermline. The memorial stone was unveiled in the Garden for Heroes, near Dunfermline Abbey, by John Erskine’s niece, Lieutenant Colonel Helen Homewood MBE.

The commemorative stone to John Erskine VC, unveiled today in Dunfermline’s Garden for Heroes.

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