Cecil Harold Sewell

Cecil Harold Sewell was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

He was 23 years old, and a Lieutenant in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, British Army, attd. 3rd (Light) Bn., Tank Corps during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 29 August 1918 at Fremicourt, France, Lieutenant Sewell, who was in command of a section of Whippet light tanks, got out of his own tank and crossed open ground under heavy machine-gun fire to rescue the crew of another whippet of his section which had side-slipped into a shell-hole, overturned and caught fire. The door of the tank had become jammed against the side of the shell-hole, but Lieutenant Sewell, unaided, dug away the entrance to the door and released the crew.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Tank Museum (Dorset, England).

This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission.

Reference

• Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)