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County Council employee Private Thomas George Turrall awarded the Victoria Cross

3rd July 2016

County Council employee Private Thomas George Turrall was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery on 3rd July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.

Thomas Turrall was born in Birmingham in 1886 and worked as a painter and decorator in Yardley before the War. Immediately before he enlisted he had been working for Worcestershire County Council but with work drying up he joined the Worcestershire Regiment and was sent to France in the summer of 1915.

During the attack at La Boiselle small bombing parties of 10th Battalion pushed forward when a hidden machine gun opened fire. The rest of the party were killed except Lieutenant Jennings, whose leg was shattered.

Turrall dragged him to a shell hole, bandaging his leg with one of his puttees, using his entrenching tool as a splint. When daylight came the Germans made an unsuccessful counter-attack on the village; and while Jennings had fainted so Turrall played dead successfully, although the Germans prodded him with their bayonets as they passed.

At night he managed to make his way back to the British trenches carrying his lieutenant. Before he died, the officer was able to report on Turrall's actions which merited the award of the Victoria Cross.

After the War he resumed life as a painter and decorator and died in 1964 in Birmingham. Attempts to locate any employee or wages records for Thomas Turrall have failed but it is likely that he worked as a labourer for the Highways and Bridges Department.

There is a wreath laying ceremony at 11.00am on Sunday 3rd July in Gheluvelt Park, Worcester in his memory.

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