Cyrus Wesley Peck Cyrus Wesley Peck VC DSO and Bar ( 26 April 1871 – 27 September 1956 ) was a Canadian 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 . Peck was one of seven Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 2 September 1918 . The other six Victoria Cross recipients were Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney , William Metcalf , John Francis Young , Walter Leigh Rayfield , Bellenden Hutcheson and Arthur George Knight . Early life . Peck was born in Hopewell Hill , New Brunswick to a family that had emigrated from New England in 1763 . Peck was 16 years old when his father moved the family to New Westminster , British Columbia . Peck took military training and crossed the Atlantic to join the British Army then changed his mind . He returned to Canada and would volunteer for the Boer War . He was not accepted for duty . He next moved to Klondike , Yukon . When First World War began he was in Prince Rupert , British Columbia and working in a salmon cannery . First World War . He went overseas in 1914 as a Major in the 30th Battalion . Then in May 1915 Peck joined as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 16th ( Canadian Scottish ) Battalion , Canadian Expeditionary Force . He was 47 years old . He became the commanding officer of the Regiment during the Battle of the Somme ( 1916 ) . Peck was awarded the Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) in the 1917 King ' s Birthday Honours ; a Bar to the DSO , for which the citation in the London Gazette read , " " During an attack he showed fine courage and leadership . He led his battalion , under difficulties caused by heavy mist , to its final objective , nearly three miles , after severe fighting . He personally led his men in an attack on nests of machine guns protecting the enemy ' s guns , which he captured . Some of the guns were of 8 - inch calibre . " " ; was Mentioned in Despatches five times ; and was wounded twice . On 2 September 1918 at Cagnicourt , France ( the Drocourt - Queant Line ) , when Lieutenant Colonel Peck ' s command , after capturing the first objective , was held up by enemy machine - gun fire , he went forward and made a personal reconnaissance under very heavy fire . Returning , he reorganized his battalion and pushed them forward . He then went out , under the most intense artillery and machine - gun fire and intercepted the tanks , giving them the necessary directions , pointing out where they were to make for , and thus paving the way for an infantry battalion to push forward . To this battalion he subsequently gave the necessary support . The full citation was published in a supplement to the " London Gazette " of 12 November 1918 ( dated 15 November 1918 ) : Politics . In 1917 he was a soldier candidate elected in the khaki election of 1917 . He was elected in 1917 as a Unionist for the riding of Skeena . He was defeated in 1921 . In 1924 , he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for the riding of The Islands . A member of the British Columbia Conservative Party , he was reelected in 1928 . In 1930 , the Gulf Islands Ferry Company purchased the Canadian Pacific car ferry Island Princess and renamed it " MV Cy Peck " in honour of Peck , who was also the local MLA . The " MV Cy Peck " remained in service until 1966 . Following his political career he was appointed to the Canadian Pension Commission and held this post until 1941 . He died 27 September 1956 of a heart attack and is buried at New Westminster Crematorium , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada . His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa , Canada .