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Autograph request
Postcard sent by Bray to Major Percy Hansen on 4th November 1929 asking for his autograph.
Brigadier Percy Howard Hansen VC DSO MC (1890-1951) was a Danish-born British Army officer of the First and Second world wars, and recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Between 1915 and 1918, he joined an elite band of officers who acquired the ‘full set’ of gallantry awards, the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross. Not only was he incredibly brave and extraordinarily lucky, he was also remarkable in that he was not of British, or even Commonwealth, parentage.
Though he would eventually rise to the rank of brigadier during the Second World War, ‘Piccadilly Percy’, as he was dubbed on account of his high society links, achieved his greatest distinction during a little more than three years service during the Great War. His first, and highest honour, was gained on the Gallipoli peninsula, near Suvla Bay. During an ill-starred advance on Hill 70, otherwise known as Scimitar Hill, on 9 August 1915, Percy, as adjutant of the 6th (Service) Bn, the Lincolnshire Regiment, was in the thick of the fighting. The battalion was under heavy enemy fire, and the dry ground over which they were advancing was set alight by enemy shells. The decision was made to withdraw, but in doing so, several wounded British soldiers were left behind, caught between the enemy shooting and the growing bush fire. Hansen managed to calm his men at a rally point, helping to prevent a rout. He then risked his life, leading a rescue party into the blazing scrub swept by bullets to save the wounded men. For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Source: www.officersoftheempire.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/percy-hansen/
