Jacob Rivers ["Tales of the V.C."]

Jacob Rivers was a 33 year old pre-war professional soldier, a Private in the 1st Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters (The Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) On 12th April 1915 his unit was in action at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle when Private Rivers, on his own initiative, crept to within a few yards of a very large number of German soldiers who were in a position to the flank of an advanced company of his battalion and threw grenades ('bombs') into them. His action caused the enemy to retire and so relieved a dangerous situation. Later the same day he again performed a second act of great bravery by causing the enemy to withdraw once more. Unfortunately he was killed on this occasion and tragically his remains never found. He is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial. The attached account of his actions was written by James Price Lloyd of the Welsh Regiment, who served with Military Intelligence. After the war, the government to destroyed all the archives relating to this propaganda (section MI 7b (1)). They were regarded as being too sensitive to risk being made public. Remarkably these documents have survived in the personal records of Captain Lloyd. Many of these papers are officially stamped, and one can trace the development of many individual articles from the notes based on an idea, to the pencil draft which is then followed by the hand-written submission and the typescript. The archive "Tales of the VC" comprises 94 individual accounts of the heroism that earned the highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross. These are recounted deferentially and economically, yet they still manage to move the reader. Date stamp: .