Tribute to Arthur Leyland Harrison - only England rugby international to be awarded the VC

Paignton can boast a proud connection with Arthur Leyland Harrison, the only England rugby international ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

A limestone and granite monument dedicated to the rugby union player and naval officer, who was born in Torquay, was erected in 2000 at Roundham Head.

Harrison was posthumously awarded his country’s highest honour for gallantry following a raid on Zeebrugge during the First World War.

The aim of the operation on April 23, 1918, was to try to block the Belgian port and prevent the Germans using it as a base for their submarines which were wreaking havoc on Allied shipping in the English Channel.

Lieutenant Commander Harrison was in charge of the naval storming parties who had been given the task of disabling the German shore batteries. But before he could spring into action he was hit by a shell fragment which broke his jaw and knocked him unconscious.

When he came to, he immediately went ashore to take charge of his men and launch the night-time attack in the face of heavy machine gunfire, despite being badly wounded. He was killed as he led the charge from the front.

His mother, Adelaide Harrison, received the VC from King George V a year later. The citation stated that he had “displayed indomitable resolution and courage of the highest order in pressing his attack, knowing as he did that any delay in silencing the guns might jeopardise the main object of the expedition.”

More than 240 British seamen and marines were killed in the raid, but it was hailed a success because it prevented the port from being used as a submarine base for the remainder of the war.