James Carne Colonel James Power Carne VC DSO ( 11 April 1906 – 19 April 1986 ) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces . Early life . Carne was born in Falmouth , Cornwall on 11 April 1906 the son of George Newby Carne and Annie Emily Le Poar Carne ( née Power ) . His father was a brewer and wine merchant . Details . He was 45 years old , and a lieutenant Colonel in the 1st Battalion , The Gloucestershire Regiment , British Army , Commander during the Korean War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC : " On 22 / 23 April 1951 near the Imjin River , Korea , Lieutenant Colonel Carne ' s battalion was heavily and incessantly engaged by vastly superior numbers of the enemy . Throughout this time Colonel Carne moved among the whole battalion under very heavy mortar and machine - gun fire , inspiring the utmost confidence and the will to resist among his troops . On two separate occasions , armed with rifle and grenades , he personally led assault parties which drove back the enemy and saved important situations . His courage , coolness and leadership was felt not only in his own battalion but throughout the whole brigade . " Prisoner of war . Carne fell into Chinese captivity after his 700 - man battalion ' s astonishing resistance against an estimated 11 , 000 attackers was finally overcome . As the senior British officer among hundreds of prisoners kept in appalling conditions in camps in communist - held Korea , he was singled out for special treatment . While the other ranks were " re - educated " by the communist commissars at their camps , Carne was kept in solitary confinement . According to documents held at the National Archives in Kew and not made public until 2006 , when Carne was released in September 1953 he told Sir Esler Dening , the British ambassador in Tokyo , " an extraordinary story " . " He says that between January 1952 and August this year he was kept in solitary confinement by Chinese communists and subjected to a softening - up process including the use of drugs , [ the ] result of which was , as he put it , to make his brain like a sponge , capable of receiving any kind of information put into it , " Sir Esler told the Foreign Office in a " top secret " category telegram . The note , which was sent straight to Sir Winston Churchill , in his second term as Prime Minister , went on : " In March of this year , ( i . e . about the time when the communists displayed a new interest in concluding an armistice ) various thoughts were put in to his mind , and he remains convinced that he was meant to retain these and pass them on to Her Majesty ' s Government . " The thoughts comprised a peace deal not just to end the war in Korea , but to reach a settlement covering the whole Pacific region . Sir Esler opined : " The whole thing might be pure fantasy except for the fact that Colonel Carne could hardly have invented it and does not strike one as that sort of person . " The Foreign Office was sceptical about the plot , but suggested that perhaps its aim was to split Britain from its American ally .