Michael Heaviside Michael Wilson Heaviside VC ( 20 October 1880 – 26 April 1939 ) 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 years . Michael Wilson Heaviside was born on 28 October 1880 at Station Lane , Gilesgate in Durham . His father , John Wilson Heaviside was , at that time , a grocer . When Michael was still a boy , the family moved to Kimblesworh , where his father worked as head keeker and Michael went to the local Council school . Later , the family moved to Sacriston , when his father transferred to the local pit . Following the death of his mother , Annie , Michael enlisted - as 11796 Private Heaviside - in the Royal Army Medical Corps . He served as a stretcher bearer in South Africa during the Boer War and was awarded the Queen ’ s and King ’ s South African Medals , before he was invalided home suffering from enteric fever . After he left the Regular Army , he transferred to the Army Reserve and began work underground at Burnhope Colliery . He met his future wife , Elizabeth , whilst living in Burnhope and they married at Lanchester . About 1913 , he took work as a hewer at Oswald pit and the family moved to Craghead , near Stanley . On 7 September 1914 , with the First World War just a month old , 4 / 9720 Private Michael Heaviside re - enlisted , just one amongst the thousands of miners from County Durham who answered Kitchener ’ s call . After training , he crossed to France in June 1915 and there settled into the deadly routine of trench warfare on the Western Front . Details . He was 36 years old , and a Private in the 15th Battalion , The Durham Light Infantry , British Army during the First World War at the Battle of Arras when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC . On the evening of 5 May 1917 , the battalion returned to their barricades on the Hindenburg Line , near Fontaine - les - Croisilles , France . Only one hundred yards separated the British and German positions but the terrible fighting of the preceding days had died down . Snipers and machine gunners were , however , still active and any movement attracted deadly fire . Then about 2 o ’ clock the next afternoon , 6 May 1917 , a sentry noticed movement in a shell hole about forty yards from the German barricade . A wounded British soldier was desperately waving an empty water bottle . Any attempt to help this soldier in daylight would result in almost certain death for the rescuers . Michael Heaviside , however , said that he was going to try . Grabbing water and a first aid bag , this thirty - six - year - old stretcher bearer scrambled over the barricade and out into no - man ’ s - land . Immediately , he came under heavy rifle and machine gun fire from the German positions and was forced to throw himself to the ground . He then began to crawl sixty yards across the broken ground from shell hole to shell hole to where the wounded soldier was sheltering . One eye witness later wrote - “ We could see bullets striking the ground right around the spot over which Heaviside was crawling . Every minute we expected to be his last but the brave chap went on . ” As he crawled closer to the German lines , the firing increased . - “ The enemy seemed to be more determined to hit him , for the bullets were spluttering about more viciously than ever . ” When Private Heaviside reached the soldier , he found the man nearly demented with thirst for he had been lying badly wounded in the shell hole for four days and three nights , without any food or water . Michael Heaviside gave the soldier water , dressed his wounds and then promised that he would return with help . That night , Michael Heaviside led two other stretcher bearers out across no - man ’ s - land to the wounded soldier and carried him back to safety . Without doubt , he had saved this man ’ s life . The London Gazette announced the award of the Victoria Cross to Private Michael Heaviside on 8 June 1917 for his “ most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty . ” He was the third soldier of The Durham Light Infantry to gain this award during the First World War . Death . After the war , Michael Heaviside VC returned to work as a miner at Craghead . On 26 April 1939 , he died at his home at Bloemfontein Terrace , aged just 58 years , his health damaged by his years underground and his time on the Western Front . Hundreds of mourners , many wearing their Great War medals , followed Michael Heaviside ’ s coffin to St Thomas ’ s Church , Craghead , as the local Colliery Band played the “ Dead March in Saul . ” At the graveside , a firing party from the 8th Battalion DLI fired three volleys of shots , followed by the “ Last Post ” played by the battalion ’ s buglers , then the mourners filed past , each dropping Flanders poppies into the open grave . The medal . On 12 July 1957 , forty years after his “ Welcome Home ” parade through the streets of Stanley and Craghead , Michael Heaviside ’ s Victoria Cross and other medals were presented by his family to The Durham Light Infantry ’ s Regimental Museum . This presentation took place during a parade at Brancepeth Castle , when , watched by his mother and over thirty sons , daughters , grandchildren and other relatives of Michael Heaviside VC , Company Sergeant Major Norman Heaviside proudly handed over his father ’ s medals . The Victoria Cross is displayed at the Durham Light Infantry Museum & Durham Art Gallery .