Lieutenant-Colonel Derek Anthony Seagrim VC


On 21st and 22nd March 1943 Derek Seagrim’s battalion were at the Battle of the  Mareth Line in Tunisia. He was in command of the 7th Battalion Green Howards with the rank of Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel. His men were attacking an enemy position but were held up by their intense fire. It looked likely that they would have to withdraw but Seagrim went ahead and led the men by his example. He personally helped place a scaling ladder over an anti-tank ditch and was the first across. He was at the front of the assault of two machine-gun positions and accounted for 20 of the enemy. The next day the enemy counter-attacked and he moved from post to post giving encouragement by his presence until the attack was beaten off.

Derek Anthony Seagrim was born on 24 Sep 1903 in Bournemouth. He was the third of five sons of the Rev Charles Seagrim who was rector of Whissonsett in Norfolk. Derek was educated in Norfolk, at Norwich School. He was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1923 and served in Jamaica, Palestine and China. He was on detachment to the King’s African Rifles for 3 years from 1936 to 39. He returned to his regiment as Intelligence Officer in Palestine in 1939 but when war broke out he worked in East Africa and Greece. In Oct 1942 he was put in command of the 7th Battalion Green Howards at El Alamein. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Seagrim was mortally wounded in the battle of Wadi Akrit. He was taken to the military hospital near Sfax but died, on 6 April 1943. He was buried at Sfax War Cemetery, Tunisia. He was gazetted for the award of the VC on 13 May 1943 and his medals are now on display in the Imperial War Museum. The portrait shows Seagrim in regimental dress uniform with the rank of captain. The Seagrim family had the distinction of being the only family to have a Victoria Cross and George Cross won by siblings. Hugh Seagrim, an officer in the Indian Army was awarded the GC for his actions in Burma in 1942/3.


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by Stephen Luscombe