Private Thomas Henry Sage VC


On 4 Oct 1917 at Tower Hamlets Spur, east of Ypres, Private Sage was in a shell-hole with eight other men. One of the men threw a grenade but was shot in the act of throwing, so that the bomb fell back into the shell-hole. Private Sage, with great presence of mind, immediately threw himself on to it, and so saved the lives of several of his comrades. Miraculously he survived but was severely injured.

He was born in Tiverton, Devon on 8 Dec 1882. He served in the 8th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. He was awarded the VC for his act of extreme heroism, gazetted on 18 Dec 1917. After the war he returned to Tiverton where he died on 20 July 1945, aged 62.


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by Stephen Luscombe