MR MIDSHIPMAN VC The Short Accident Prone Life of George Drewry, Gallipoli Hero

Of the thirty-nine Gallipoli Victoria Crosses arguably none was more deserved than the medal earned by George Leslie Drewry. At just 20, he was the first officer of the Royal Naval Reserve to get the nation’s premier award for valour when part of the landing on V Beach at Cape Helles. In so doing he was badly wounded. Accident-prone, he survived falling into a bog as a child; he was knocked over by a car; as a novice merchantman he fell from the mast of his ship and on another occasion was shipwrecked after rounding Cape Horn and stranded on a deserted island. Tragically he died at Scapa Flow shortly before the end of The Great War, while in command of his first ship. Using contemporary sources, the author brings Drewry’s life into sharp focus and describes the role of ‘Snotty’ as midshipmen were then known.