Charles Pope - VC - 11th Battalion Australian Infantry - KIA 15 April 1917

73rd Pilgrimage of the Officers and Friends of the The Hampstead Pals, Metropolitan Police on Monday 23rd May 2022.

"On 15th April 1917 at Louveral, France, Lieutenant Pope was in command of a very important picquet post, with orders to hold it at all costs. The enemy in greatly superior numbers attacked and surrounded the post and ammunition was running short. Lieutenant Pope, in a desperate bid to save the position, was seen to charge with his men into the very superior enemy force, by which they were overpowered, although heavy losses were inflicted. This gallant officer had obeyed the order to hold out to the last and his body, with those of most of his men, was found in proximity to 80 enemy dead."