Tasker Watkins

Lieutenant of the 1/5th Battalion, Welch Regiment, holder of the Victoria Cross, and later Lord Justice of Appeal and Deputy Chief Justice of England and Wales. Born on 18 November 1918 in Nelson, Glamorgan, Wales. On 16 August 1944 near Bafour in Normandy his company, by then reduced to about thirty men, came under crossfire in a minefield. Watkins led a bayonet charge, personally destroyed a machine-gun crew and, when the company was cut off, brought the survivors back to Allied lines after dark, remaining behind himself to cover the withdrawal. His Victoria Cross was gazetted on 2 November 1944. After the war he became a barrister and then a judge. He was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in 1980 and served as Deputy Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1988 to 1993. From 1993 to 2004 he was President of the Welsh Rugby Union, which named an award in his honour. He died on 9 September 2007.