page_title: Norman Augustus Finch
section_title: Victoria Cross
hierarchical_section_title: Norman Augustus Finch / Victoria Cross
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Zeebrugge Churchyard
context_page_description: Norman Augustus Finch VC, MSM was a Royal Marines soldier and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
context_section_description: Finch was 27 years old, and a sergeant in the Royal Marine Artillery, Royal Marines during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
  On 22/23 April 1918 at Zeebrugge, Belgium, Sergeant Finch was second in command of the pom-poms and Lewis gun in the foretop of HMS Vindictive. At one period Vindictive was being hit every few seconds, but Sergeant Finch and the officer in command kept up a continuous fire, until two heavy shells made direct hits on the foretop killing or disabling everyone except Sergeant Finch who was, however, severely wounded. Nevertheless, he remained in his battered and exposed position, harassing the enemy on the Mole until the foretop received another direct hit, putting the remainder of the armament completely out of action. His award was by virtue of ballot.
caption: Memorial to Finch and Edward Bamford in Zeebrugge Churchyard
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 6D", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:02:17 13:29:01", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "858", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "21101", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:02:16 10:36:10", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:02:16 10:36:10", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "361471/100000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "51", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1520", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "323051001800", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 70, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}