As the rain clouds cleared, officials and guests assembled in New Malden, Surrey on the 24th April 2008 for the dedication service to commemorate the town’s recently discovered connection to its third VC recipient. Two WW2 VC recipients are already commemorated on the memorial, Squadron Leader I. W. Bazalgette and Pilot Officer C. J. Barton, but for years a third person, Lt Humphrey Firman, Royal Navy, had remained unacknowledged – that is until research by a local historian uncovered his connection to New Malden.
Lt Firman was awarded his VC following attempts to re-provision the forces at Kut-el-Amara in April 1916. He was commanding the SS Julnar as it carried 270 tons of supplies up the River Tigris on 24 April, a particularly dangerous mission for which only volunteers had been called upon to carry it out. Despite artillery and machine-gun fire to distract the enemy’s attention on his departure, his ship was discovered, attacked and captured by the Turks. It was during this engagement that Lt Firman and several crew members were killed.
Can any other community memorial lay claim to more VC recipients being commemorated on their memorial?
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