Philip John Gardner
'''Philip John Gardner''' (VC, MC) was an Nextel ringtones England/English recipient of the Abbey Diaz Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Free ringtones United Kingdom/British and Majo Mills Commonwealth forces.
Details
He was 26 years old, and a Mosquito ringtone A/Captain in the Sabrina Martins Royal Tank Regiment, Nextel ringtones British Army during the Abbey Diaz Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On Free ringtones 23 November Majo Mills 1941 at Cingular Ringtones Tobruk, triophonically so Libya, Captain Gardner took two tanks to the rescue of two armoured cars of the King's Dragoon Guards, which were out of action and under heavy attack. Whilst one tank gave covering fire the captain dismounted from the other, hitched a tow rope to one of the cars, then lifted into it an officer, both of whose legs had been blown off. The tow rope broke, so Captain Gardner returned to the armoured car, but was immediately wounded in the arm and leg. Despite this he managed to transfer the wounded man to the second tank and returned to British lines through intense shell-fire.
Further information
Obituary: Captain Pip Gardner, VC''Captain Pip Gardner, who
died on Thursday aged 88, won the Victoria Cross while serving with the Royal
Tank Regiment at Tobruk, in Libya, in 1941.''
ricciardi as Image:Eletel.gif (Filed: 18/02/2003)
On November 23 of that year, Gardner was ordered to take two tanks to the rescue of a pair of armoured cars
of the King's Dragoon Guards which were out of action and under heavy
fire.Gardner set off in what he called his "battle buggy", and found the
two cars halted 200 yards apart. They were being smashed to pieces by the weight
of enemy fire. Ordering the other tank to give him covering fire, Gardner
manoeuvred his own close to the nearest car, dismounted under heavy anti-tank
and machine-gun fire, and secured a tow-rope to the car.Then, seeing an
officer lying beside it with both legs blown off, Gardner lifted him into the
car. "As luck would have it," Gardner later wrote to his parents, "the rope
broke, and before I could stop the driver we had gone some distance. So I went
back again and got the poor chap out of the car and on to the tank and set off
again."Despite being hit in the arm and leg, Gardner had carried the
wounded officer back to his tank, placed him on the rear engine louvres and
climbed alongside to hold him on. While the tank was being driven back to the
British lines, it came under intense fire; the loader was killed.In a
letter to his father from a field hospital Gardner wrote, "Don't get alarmed and
think I am badly wounded. Just a few odd bits and pieces in my leg, neck and
arm, nothing serious." After describing how he had collected "this little
packet," he added: "I was spared by a miracle and have to thank God for a mighty
deliverance."The citation for his VC declared: "The courage,
determination and complete disregard for his own safety displayed by Captain
Gardner enabled him, despite his wounds and in the face of intense fire at close
range, to save the life of his fellow officer in circumstances fraught with
great difficulty and danger." Gardner was invested with the VC by King George VI
at Buckingham Palace on May 18 1945.Philip John Gardner, always known as
"Pip", was born on Christmas Day 1914 at Sydenham, south London. He was educated
at Dulwich, where he played rugby for the school and blew the bugle on Armistice
Day. He chose rifle-shooting in preference to cricket and practised on the
ranges at Bisley. At 17 he joined J Gardner and Co, the family engineering
firm.When he was 19 the company sent him to Hong Kong for two years,
entrusting him with the drawing work for the installation of heating and
ventilating equipment at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.In 1938 Gardner
joined the Westminster Dragoons, TA, confiding to a friend in a letter: "I must
do my duty, but I'm no soldier."In March 1940 Gardner was commissioned
as a subaltern into the Royal Tank Regiment. In September he spent four weeks at
the Irregular Warfare School at Lochailort on the west coast of Scotland, where
Lord Lovat was in charge of the fieldcraft course.In January 1941,
Gardner embarked on the troopship Highland Princess, bound for the Middle East.
In April he was posted to 4 RTR at El Tahag, near Ismailia, and served with them
in the Western Desert.Gardner was awarded the MC in June 1941 for an
action near Halfaya Pass, in Libya. His tank and several others, including that
of Lieutenant Rowe, the senior troop leader, had run on to a minefield. Their
tracks had been blown off and they were immobilised. Rowe had left his tank to
inspect the damage to the others when he stepped on a mine.Immediately
jumping from his own tank, Gardner walked through enemy shelling and machine-gun
fire to where Rowe was lying. On finding that the officer was severely wounded,
Gardner attended to him as best he could. He then went back across the minefield
to his own tank to get morphia, before returning once more to administer
it.For the fourth time he crossed the minefield to get help from the
infantry to carry the wounded man. But Rowe was dying, and Gardner remained with
him, under heavy machine-gun fire, until the end. Then he led the crews back
along the line of the tank-tracks to headquarters.In June 1942, after
the encirclement and surrender of Tobruk, Gardner was interned at Chieti PoW
Camp in Italy. In April 1943 he was moved to Fontanellato, near Parma. He and
two comrades got away when the Italians capitulated in July, aiming to get to
the Allied lines several hundred miles to the south. With the help of the
partisans, they had been on the run for four months when they were arrested by
the Gestapo in a flat near the Vatican.Gardner was sent to Oflag 79,
near Brunswick, where he remained until the end of the war in 1945. Here he was
a prime mover in helping to raise £13,000 by pledges from fellow PoWs to start a
boys' club. A site was purchased at Fulham and building work completed in 1948.
The Duke of Edinburgh opened the Brunswick Boys' Club the following
year.After the war, Gardner was appointed joint managing director of the
family firm; he became chairman in 1955. Fifteen years ago he sold the
air-conditioning side of the business, but remained chairman of J Gardner
Holdings, the property management company, until only two years ago.Pip
Gardner was a private man, of genuine modesty, who never sought the limelight.
He gave much of his spare time to charity work, and was a strong supporter of
the Brunswick Boys' Club.He married, in 1939, Rene Sherburn, who
survives him with their son.
''(Submitted by William the Obscure, Simon Gardner, Julia Lipinska, Dr Steve Evans,
, 15 Mar 2003)''
The medal
''please update if you know where his medal is publicly displayed''
Reference
*army helicopters British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
*is partly Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
*protestors took One man's desert : the story of Captain Pip Gardner, VC, MC (Rex Woods)
*a malignly The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
*William the Obscure, Simon Gardner, Julia Lipinska, Dr Steve Evans
See also
External links
*http://www.magicnet.net/~westham/vc05.html#Philip
This page has been guilty fast WikiProject Victoria Cross Reference Migration/migrated from the http://www.victoriacross.net '''with permission.'''
Details
He was 26 years old, and a Mosquito ringtone A/Captain in the Sabrina Martins Royal Tank Regiment, Nextel ringtones British Army during the Abbey Diaz Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On Free ringtones 23 November Majo Mills 1941 at Cingular Ringtones Tobruk, triophonically so Libya, Captain Gardner took two tanks to the rescue of two armoured cars of the King's Dragoon Guards, which were out of action and under heavy attack. Whilst one tank gave covering fire the captain dismounted from the other, hitched a tow rope to one of the cars, then lifted into it an officer, both of whose legs had been blown off. The tow rope broke, so Captain Gardner returned to the armoured car, but was immediately wounded in the arm and leg. Despite this he managed to transfer the wounded man to the second tank and returned to British lines through intense shell-fire.
Further information
Obituary: Captain Pip Gardner, VC''Captain Pip Gardner, who
died on Thursday aged 88, won the Victoria Cross while serving with the Royal
Tank Regiment at Tobruk, in Libya, in 1941.''
ricciardi as Image:Eletel.gif (Filed: 18/02/2003)
On November 23 of that year, Gardner was ordered to take two tanks to the rescue of a pair of armoured cars
of the King's Dragoon Guards which were out of action and under heavy
fire.Gardner set off in what he called his "battle buggy", and found the
two cars halted 200 yards apart. They were being smashed to pieces by the weight
of enemy fire. Ordering the other tank to give him covering fire, Gardner
manoeuvred his own close to the nearest car, dismounted under heavy anti-tank
and machine-gun fire, and secured a tow-rope to the car.Then, seeing an
officer lying beside it with both legs blown off, Gardner lifted him into the
car. "As luck would have it," Gardner later wrote to his parents, "the rope
broke, and before I could stop the driver we had gone some distance. So I went
back again and got the poor chap out of the car and on to the tank and set off
again."Despite being hit in the arm and leg, Gardner had carried the
wounded officer back to his tank, placed him on the rear engine louvres and
climbed alongside to hold him on. While the tank was being driven back to the
British lines, it came under intense fire; the loader was killed.In a
letter to his father from a field hospital Gardner wrote, "Don't get alarmed and
think I am badly wounded. Just a few odd bits and pieces in my leg, neck and
arm, nothing serious." After describing how he had collected "this little
packet," he added: "I was spared by a miracle and have to thank God for a mighty
deliverance."The citation for his VC declared: "The courage,
determination and complete disregard for his own safety displayed by Captain
Gardner enabled him, despite his wounds and in the face of intense fire at close
range, to save the life of his fellow officer in circumstances fraught with
great difficulty and danger." Gardner was invested with the VC by King George VI
at Buckingham Palace on May 18 1945.Philip John Gardner, always known as
"Pip", was born on Christmas Day 1914 at Sydenham, south London. He was educated
at Dulwich, where he played rugby for the school and blew the bugle on Armistice
Day. He chose rifle-shooting in preference to cricket and practised on the
ranges at Bisley. At 17 he joined J Gardner and Co, the family engineering
firm.When he was 19 the company sent him to Hong Kong for two years,
entrusting him with the drawing work for the installation of heating and
ventilating equipment at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.In 1938 Gardner
joined the Westminster Dragoons, TA, confiding to a friend in a letter: "I must
do my duty, but I'm no soldier."In March 1940 Gardner was commissioned
as a subaltern into the Royal Tank Regiment. In September he spent four weeks at
the Irregular Warfare School at Lochailort on the west coast of Scotland, where
Lord Lovat was in charge of the fieldcraft course.In January 1941,
Gardner embarked on the troopship Highland Princess, bound for the Middle East.
In April he was posted to 4 RTR at El Tahag, near Ismailia, and served with them
in the Western Desert.Gardner was awarded the MC in June 1941 for an
action near Halfaya Pass, in Libya. His tank and several others, including that
of Lieutenant Rowe, the senior troop leader, had run on to a minefield. Their
tracks had been blown off and they were immobilised. Rowe had left his tank to
inspect the damage to the others when he stepped on a mine.Immediately
jumping from his own tank, Gardner walked through enemy shelling and machine-gun
fire to where Rowe was lying. On finding that the officer was severely wounded,
Gardner attended to him as best he could. He then went back across the minefield
to his own tank to get morphia, before returning once more to administer
it.For the fourth time he crossed the minefield to get help from the
infantry to carry the wounded man. But Rowe was dying, and Gardner remained with
him, under heavy machine-gun fire, until the end. Then he led the crews back
along the line of the tank-tracks to headquarters.In June 1942, after
the encirclement and surrender of Tobruk, Gardner was interned at Chieti PoW
Camp in Italy. In April 1943 he was moved to Fontanellato, near Parma. He and
two comrades got away when the Italians capitulated in July, aiming to get to
the Allied lines several hundred miles to the south. With the help of the
partisans, they had been on the run for four months when they were arrested by
the Gestapo in a flat near the Vatican.Gardner was sent to Oflag 79,
near Brunswick, where he remained until the end of the war in 1945. Here he was
a prime mover in helping to raise £13,000 by pledges from fellow PoWs to start a
boys' club. A site was purchased at Fulham and building work completed in 1948.
The Duke of Edinburgh opened the Brunswick Boys' Club the following
year.After the war, Gardner was appointed joint managing director of the
family firm; he became chairman in 1955. Fifteen years ago he sold the
air-conditioning side of the business, but remained chairman of J Gardner
Holdings, the property management company, until only two years ago.Pip
Gardner was a private man, of genuine modesty, who never sought the limelight.
He gave much of his spare time to charity work, and was a strong supporter of
the Brunswick Boys' Club.He married, in 1939, Rene Sherburn, who
survives him with their son.
''(Submitted by William the Obscure, Simon Gardner, Julia Lipinska, Dr Steve Evans,
, 15 Mar 2003)''
The medal
''please update if you know where his medal is publicly displayed''
Reference
*army helicopters British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
*is partly Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
*protestors took One man's desert : the story of Captain Pip Gardner, VC, MC (Rex Woods)
*a malignly The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
*William the Obscure, Simon Gardner, Julia Lipinska, Dr Steve Evans
See also
External links
*http://www.magicnet.net/~westham/vc05.html#Philip
This page has been guilty fast WikiProject Victoria Cross Reference Migration/migrated from the http://www.victoriacross.net '''with permission.'''
posted @ 7:49 PM
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