Lieutenant Gordon Flowerdew VC, farmer, rancher, soldier, born on 2 January 1885 in Billingford, Norfolk, England.
During the Great War, Lieutenant Flowerdew led one of the last great cavalry charges in history and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery among troops of the British Empire.
Early Life of Gordon Flowerdew
Gordon Flowerdew born on a farm, one of fourteen children. Attended Framlingham College (1894 to 1899) in England for five years and emigrated as a young man to Canada in 1903. An excellent athlete. After coming to Canada in 1903, he followed opportunity to Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, and then to British Columbia, at Queens Bay on Kootenay Lake and finally at Walhachin, where he found work in a general store and post office.
British Columbia Horse
In 1910, he joined a militia unit, the British Columbia Horse. Now an excellent horseman and won several competitions in riding and shooting. He apparently turned his hand to many things, managing a butcher shop and working as an orchardist and rancher.
Regiment of Cavalry
In summer 1911 he joined the Regiment of Cavalry (31st Regiment, British Columbia Horse), and at the annual militia camp the following year he distinguished himself by setting records in shooting competitions and steeplechasing. In Walhachin he had become a local hero in October 1911 by helping to apprehend two robbers after a mounted chase. So it came as no surprise that upon the outbreak of war he volunteered for service overseas.
Lord Strathcona’s Horse
After the outbreak of the Great War, Flowerdew enrolled in September 1914 as a private in Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians). Appointed a lance-corporal in LSH, under the command of Archibald Cameron Macdonell. The regiment sailed to Britain in May 1915 and later embarked for France, part of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade (CCB), commanded by British Brigadier-General J.E.B. Seely. The CCB consisted of three cavalry regiments, two artillery batteries and a machine-gun squadron. (See Canadian Expeditionary Force.)
Operation Michael
On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched the first and largest of five offensives they would mount that year. Operation Michael intended to drive a giant wedge between the British and French armies, forcing the British back toward the English Channel and the French toward Paris.
Bravery at the Bois de Moreuil
On 30 March, as British units withdrew in the face of the massive German assault, the CCB ordered to stem the enemy advance at a five-kilometre gap at Bois de Moreuil, overlooking the French town of Moreuil. The triangular-shaped wood had three sides facing north, west and southeast, each about 1,500 meters long. Parts of it were being occupied by German infantry.
British Brigadier-General J.E.B. Seely
When the CCB (minus its artillery) arrived near Moreuil, Brigadier Seely sent thrusts into the wood by the three mounted squadrons of Royal Canadian Dragoons, followed by two dismounted squadrons of Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians). The machine-gun squadron provided flank covering fire, while the Fort Garry Horse remained in reserve.
‘C’ Squadron
Soon, all five squadrons were heavily engaged with the enemy among the trees. C Squadron, still mounted and under the command of now-Lieutenant Flowerdew, ordered to gallop around the northeast corner to prevent German reinforcements from entering the wood. Flowerdew led his men up a steep embankment. At the top, they saw two lines of German infantrymen deployed in the open some 300 metres to their front, supported by artillery and machine guns. Flowerdew waved his sword for the squadron to deploy into line, turned in his saddle and shouted,
“It’s a charge, boys, it’s a charge.”
Certain death looming, the Strathcona’s galloped bravely forward, sabres drawn. Flowerdew went down near the first line, badly wounded. The squadron flooded past him, cutting down several Germans with their sabres. Losses for all three regiments severe, with Flowerdew losing over 70 per cent of his men.
Victoria Cross
Flowerdew picked up and carried to a field ambulance, but with wounds in his legs and chest, he died the next day. Posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Flowerdew’s cavalry charge — in the tradition of what had once been a staple of military tactics — among the last ever launched in the new era of 20th century industrial-style warfare.
Citation
“For most conspicuous bravery and dash when in command of a squadron detailed for special service of a very important nature. On reaching the first objective, Lieutenant Flowerdew saw two lines of the enemy, each about sixty strong, with machine guns in the centre and flanks, one line being about two hundred yards behind the other. Realising the critical nature of the operation and how much depended upon it, Lieutenant Flowerdew ordered a troop under Lieutenant Harvey, V.C., to dismount and carry out a special movement while he led the remaining three troops to the charge.
The squadron (less one troop) passed over both lines, killing many of the enemy with the sword; and wheeling about galloped at them again. Although the squadron had then lost about 70 per cent of its numbers, killed and wounded, from rifle and machine-gun fire directed on it from the front and both flanks, the enemy broke and retired. The survivors of the squadron then established themselves in a position where they were joined, after much hand-to-hand fighting, by Lieutenant Harvey’s party.
Lieutenant Flowerdew dangerously wounded through both thighs during the operation, but continued to cheer on his men. There can be no doubt that this officer’s great valour the prime factor in the capture of the position.”
London Gazette, no.30648, 24 April 1918
Memory
Flowerdew’s action at Moreuil Wood immortalized in a painting by British war artist and famed equestrian painter, Sir Alfred Munnings. Titled “Charge of Flowerdew’s Squadron,” the 1918 work is held by the Canadian War Museum.
A lake in Saskatchewan is named after Lieutenant Gordon Flowerdew VC. And in 2004 a memorial obelisk unveiled a few kilometres north of Moreuil, near a main highway intersection. The Battle of Bois de Moreuil is commemorated annually by Flowerdew’s regiment, Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians), as the most important event in the unit’s ceremonial calendar. Jean Paul Brunel of Moreuil helps organize this annual event.
Mssr Brunel discovered the grave of Private John James Willoughby (‘C’ Company, Lord Strathcona’s Horse) on his property in 1986.
Namps-au-Val British Cemetery
At the end of March 1918, when the German offensive in Picardy began, the 41st, 50th and 55th Casualty Clearing Stations came to Namps-au-Val, remaining until the middle of April. Almost all the burials in the cemetery carried out by them, but nine graves in Plot II, Row D, brought in after the Armistice from CONTY FRENCH MILITARY CEMETERY.
The cemetery contains 408 Commonwealth burials of the Great War and one from the Second World War. There are also 16 French war graves. The cemetery designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.
More
- Home of CEFRG
- Blog
- CEFRG on FaceBook
- CEFRG on YouTube
- Soldiers and Nursing Sisters
- Units (Brigades, Battalions, Companies)
- War Diary of the 18th Battalion (Blog)
- 116th Battalion CEF – The Great War
- Les Soldats du Québec Morts en Service
- Montreal Aviation Museum
- Battles of the Great War
- Cases
- Cemeteries
- Memorials
- On This Day
- About CEFRG