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| On 9th April 1918, at Givenchy in France, after offering a gallant resistance against heavy odds in the Keep held by his platoon, 2nd Lt Collin of the 4th Battalion, with only 5 of his men remaining, slowly withdrew, contesting every inch of ground. He then single-handedly attacked a machine-gun. After firing his revolver into the enemy he seized a Mills grenade and threw it into the German gun team, putting their gun out of action. He then took a Lewis gun and engaged a second hostile machine-gun, keeping the enemy at bay until he was fatally wounded. He died the same day, 2 days before his 25th birthday.
Joseph Henry Collin was born at Jarrow, County Durham on 11th April 1893. There are memorials to him at Vielle-Chapelle new Military Cemetery in France, and at The Priory in Lancaster. |
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