Charles Upham

Captain of the 20th Battalion, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, holder of the Victoria Cross and Bar, and the only combatant soldier ever to receive the award twice. Born on 21 September 1908 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Before the war he worked as a sheep farmer and land valuer. His first Victoria Cross was for the fighting on Crete in May 1941: over nine days, wounded and suffering from dysentery, he destroyed machine-gun posts, carried out wounded men and brought units out of encirclement. The Bar was for the action at Ruweisat Ridge in Egypt in July 1942: he led an attack on enemy positions under fire, was wounded twice, continued to command and was taken prisoner when his company was cut off. He made repeated escape attempts in captivity and was eventually sent to Colditz, from which he was liberated in 1945. Only three men have received the Victoria Cross twice. The other two were medical officers, Arthur Martin-Leake and Noel Chavasse, whose record also appears in this archive. Upham remains the only one to have earned both as a fighting soldier. He returned to farming in New Zealand after the war and avoided public honours. He died on 22 November 1994.