Private Tom Dresser VC

Tom Dresser was born on 9 April 1891 at Lawnd House Farm, Huby near Easingwold, but he lived most of his life in Middlesborough. Despite being badly wounded in WW1 he survived to the age of 91, dying on 15 April 1982. He was awarded the VC for his great bravery and perseverance on 12 May 1917 near Roeux in France. He was shot twice while delivering an important message to the frontline trenches from battalion HQ. He was in a state of total exhaustion when he arrived at his destination but the information he conveyed was of vital importance.
The award of his medal was published in the London Gazette on 27 Jun 1917. The picture below shows Private Tom Dresser VC receiving the cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1917.
Tom’s family were farmers, his grandfather owning 500 acres, and his parents, Thomas and Clara had a farm at Westgate Pickering but at some point after 1902 sold up and bought a newsagents in Middlesborough. Tom Junior was educated at St John’s and Hugh Bell High School in Middlesborough and afterwards had a job at Dorman Long’s Foundry. He was 22 when he enlisted on 8 Feb 1916 and after training, arrived on the Somme to join the 7th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment in Sep 1916. Having been wounded on 12 May 1917 he was in hospital, but fit enough to go to London to receive his medal on 21 July. On returning to the Front he transferred to 74th Machine Gun Corps where he stayed until demobilisation on 27 April 1919.
Returning from the war he went back to work at the Foundry but he later took over his father’s newsagent’s. He married Teresa Landers in 1924 and they had four sons. In WW2 he was in the Home Guard. Teresa died on 27 Dec 1965, aged 62, and Tom died on 15 April 1982 aged 91. He was buried in the same grave as his wife, at Thorntree Cemetery, but his name was not added to the gravestone until July 2015 for security reasons. In the 1980s it was feared that the IRA would target VC winners’ graves. A statue of Tom Dresser VC, sculpted by Brian Alabaster, was placed in the grounds of the Dorman Museum Middlesborough on Friday 12 May 2017. It stands near another statue of WW2 Green Howards VC winner Stan Hollis.

Private Tom Dresser of the Yorkshire Regiment receives his Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1917. Private Dresser has his right arm in a sling.

Regimental Details | Soldiers