page_title: Noel Godfrey Chavasse
section_title: Victoria Cross
hierarchical_section_title: Noel Godfrey Chavasse / Military career and decorations / Victoria Cross
caption_attribution_description: Photograph showing World War I medals of Noel Chavasse VC and Christopher Chavasse. Noel's medals are top row. Christopher's medals are bottom row.
context_page_description: Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC was a British medical doctor, Olympic athlete, and British Army officer from the Chavasse family. He is one of only three people to be awarded a Victoria Cross twice.
  The Battle of Guillemont saw acts of heroism by Chavasse, the only man to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice during the First World War. In 1916, he was hit by shell splinters while rescuing men in no-man's land. It is said he got as close as 25 yards to the German line, where he found three men and continued throughout the night under a constant rain of sniper bullets and bombing. He performed similar heroics in the early stages of the offensive at Passchendaele in August 1917 to gain a second VC and become the most highly decorated British officer of the First World War. Although operated upon, he was to die of his wounds two days later in 1917.
context_section_description: Chavasse was first awarded the VC for his actions on 9 August 1916, at Guillemont, France when he attended to the wounded all day under heavy fire. The full
  citation was published on 24 October 1916 and read:
  Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, M.C., M.B., Royal Army Medical Corps.
  For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty.
  During an attack he tended the wounded in the open all day, under heavy fire, frequently in view of the enemy. During the ensuing night he searched for wounded on the ground in front of the enemy's lines for four hours.
  Next day he took one stretcher-bearer to the advanced trenches, and under heavy shell fire carried an urgent case for 500 yards into safety, being wounded in the side by a shell splinter during the journey. The same night he took up a party of twenty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell hole twenty-five yards from the enemy's trench, buried the bodies of two officers, and collected many identity discs, although fired on by bombs and machine guns.
  
  Altogether he saved the lives of some twenty badly wounded men, besides the ordinary cases which passed through his hands. His courage and self-sacrifice, were beyond praise.
caption: Medals of Noel and Christopher Chavasse. Noel's medals are top row. Christopher's medals are bottom row.
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