New Thomas Ricketts. V.C Memorial

[Steve Campbell]

I believe I posted this memorial awhile back, but just a few weeks ago they opened a new memorial to honor Thomas Ricketts, the Victoria Cross winner from my home province of Newfoundland, Canada. Thomas Ricketts won the the Victoria Cross at 17 years of age on October 14, 1918 in Belgium. King George himself personally awarded the cross to him. Here is a link for more information.

http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/media/bg_ricketts_e.html

The original Memorial, shown here, was there since the early 70's. The new one is a small park with much more information, pictures etc. They dedicated it a few weeks ago. Unfortunatley I was out of town working at the time. His son attended the dedication, so I really missed out. The new memorial is great, but they don't have the original plaque there, which I think is a shame. Anyway, I thought I would post this, as Thomas Ricketts is an individual that all Newfoundlanders can be proud of. Newfoundland was actually a colony of Britian at the time and did not join Canada till 1949. Only 94 Canadians have won the Victoria Cross. This memorial is located in the capital city, St. John's, where Mr. Ricketts settled and lived after the war. This is only five minutes from my neibourhood.

This is the original plaque.

[Steve Campbell]

Here's the new sign, which does give alot more information.

[Steve Campbell]

They give nice shots of the medals also. Here's the Victoria Cross.

[Steve Campbell]

The Croix De Guerre.

[Steve Campbell]

Here's a close up shot of Mr. Ricketts. Hard to believe he was only 17 when he won this.

[Steve Campbell]

Finally, a better shot of the little park they set up. It's good to see these men honored and remembered.

[pete]

.

Nice to see it steve. As the King said "This is the youngest VC in my Army." Tommy Rickets from White bay. There have been other recent bravery awards (some official, "probably" some unofficial, due to op security) to other Newfoundlanders in the past while. One such is a former R Nfld Regt soldier who i served with from shea heights. Aparently while in the famous White school area with the vehicle in a bottleneck or some small path they came under fire and Both weapons 25mm and ( mm?) in the turret jammed and he climbed out ontop of the veh to bring the pintile mounted GPMG on to the attacking enemy who were closing on them(while est. 10 RPGs were fired on mass "volley") and he drove them off . At That point as i recall from reading the 155mm that they called in landed 70m away so he had back them off as they were at danger close range and there had also been a drop short. When awarded the decoration he said "Im just the guy who got picked. This belongs to everyone." Good man and with the true Newfoundland spirit.

Theres also another im aware of who was the Sniper also ex R Nfld Regt ( i think) who made the 2430m shot on record now. Those guys got I Believe bronze stars but as the article shows they had a pretty rough time after all the work was done as well.
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/i...=M1ARTM0012847

Here is the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael..._Victor_Denine

[Steve Campbell]

I've heard of both of those incidents. The over 2km sniper kill is incredible. I believe a .50 cal rifle was used.