Percy Hansen

Hansen was appointed as a temporary captain shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914, as adjutant in the 6th (Service) Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment,[1] and his promotion was made permanent in the following April. He fought with his battalion, a recently created Kitchener's Army unit composed of civilian volunteers, during the Gallipoli campaign in the summer of 1915. On 9 August 1915 at Yilghin Bumu, Hansen's battalion was forced to withdraw while assaulting Scimitar Hill. Hansen and volunteers repeatedly moved back and forth under heavy fire to successfully rescue six wounded men from capture, or death by burning. Hansen was consequently awarded the Victoria Cross.

A month later, Hansen won the Military Cross for performing a reconnaissance mission at Suvla Bay.[3] On the night of 9 September 1915, he carried out a solo reconnaissance of the coast, carrying only a revolver and a blanket for disguise. He successfully located an important Turkish firing position.[1]

Due to ill-health, Hansen was eventually transferred to France and appointed brigade major to the 170th (2/1st North Lancashire) Brigade. He remained a staff officer for the rest of the war, during which he served with the II Anzac Corps. He was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for another daring reconnaissance mission during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

Remaining in the army after the war, Hansen attended the Staff College, Camberley and, for most of the interwar period, served in numerous staff positions.[1] After graduating, he then served as a brigade major with the 8th Infantry Brigade, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, then serving in Southern Command, before becoming a brigade major with the 4th Infantry Division's 12th Infantry Brigade. His next assignment was as a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) to the 55th (West Lancashire) Division, a Territorial Army (TA) formation, and then a GSO2 in Jamaica, before returning to the United Kingdom and being made Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General (DAAG) with Western Command.[1] He was then posted to the 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, initially as the battalion's second-in-command. The battalion was serving in Palestine, then the scene of an Arab revolt. The battalion was in Palestine for five months before it was sent back to England, and in September 1937 Hansen became the Commanding Officer (CO). He continued to command of the battalion until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939.[1]

On 2 September 1939, the day before the war began, Hansen was posted to the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division, a TA formation which he had served with before, and was made Assistant Adjutant-General & Quartermaster-General (AA&QMG). He held this post until late January 1941, when he became Deputy Assistant & Quartermaster-General (DA&QMG) with XII Corps, then commanded by Lieutenant General Andrew Thorne. The corps, which was commanded from late April by Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, had responsibility for the defence of Kent in the event of a German invasion of the United Kingdom.

Hansen continued in this role until February 1942 when he was made an Area Commander of Belfast Area, before being made a Sub-District Commander, Ashford Area until serving on the staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). He remained in this position until the war's end in 1945, and he retired from the army in January 1946.[1]

Hansen died on 12 February 1951, at the relatively young age of sixty. He is one of only fourteen men, other than Gurkhas born in Nepal, not born as a British subject to have received the Victoria Cross.[1]