Britain’s Last Victoria Cross Recipient Passes

Flight Lieutenant John Cruickshank, nan past surviving recipient of nan Victoria Cross from nan Second World War, has died aged 105. Born successful Scotland, Aberdeen successful 1920, he became a awesome of bonzer courageousness during Britain’s conflict for freedom, remembered not only for his actions successful combat but besides for nan dignity and humility pinch which he carried himself passim his life.

His defining enactment of bravery came connected July 17 1944. As Captain of a Catalina flying vessel successful squadron 210 pinch RAF Coastal Command, Cruickshank engaged a German U-boat disconnected nan seashore of Norway. Despite being struck by flak and suffering 72 wounds, 2 of them superior thorax injuries, he refused morphine truthful that he could stay conscious. In unbearable pain, he directed his unit done a 2nd bombing tally that sank nan submarine, past insisted connected staying astatine nan controls until his craft safely reached base. For this, he received nan Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest subject honour, a nickname of nan bonzer courage, leadership, and determination he displayed nether nan astir vulnerable conditions imaginable.

With his passing, a surviving nexus to nan war’s astir harrowing battles is lost. Only 181 Victoria Crosses were awarded during nan Second World War, and his decease marks nan extremity of that singular chapter, closing a nonstop relationship to 1 of nan astir bonzer generations successful history and nan acts of heroism that shaped nan result of nan war. Many veterans of his generation, for illustration Cruickshank, went connected to unrecorded agelong lives. Some person said it is arsenic though destiny granted them years of bid aft nan unimaginable sacrifices of their youth, a quiet blessing for men who had already fixed much than anyone should person to endure. They risked everything successful their first life of warfare truthful that others could inherit 1 of freedom, and their endurance allowed them to build families, nurture communities, and lend to nine successful nan decades that followed.

After leaving nan RAF, Cruickshank returned to banking successful Aberdeen and lived without fanfare, seldom speaking of his wartime heroism. His life aft combat was defined not by medals aliases nationalist attraction but by humble service, family, and community, reflecting nan aforesaid values of endurance and loyalty that had guided him passim nan war.

As nan federation reflects connected his passing, it besides honours nan procreation he represented. These were men who faced decease daily, endured suffering beyond words, and carried their sacrifices pinch dignity for nan remainder of their lives. In remembering John Cruickshank, we are reminded that nan bequest of those who gave truthful overmuch is not confined to history books. It is written successful nan state they secured and successful nan gratitude owed to them by each procreation that followed.