Stanley Hollis Stanley Elton Hollis VC ( 21 September 1912 – 8 February 1972 ) 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 . He has the unique distinction of receiving the only Victoria Cross awarded on D - Day ( 6 June 1944 ) . Information . Stanley Hollis was born in Middlesbrough , Yorkshire , England where he lived and attended the local school until 1926 when his parents ( Edith and Alfred Hollis ) moved to Robin Hood ' s Bay where Stan worked in his father ' s fish and chip shop . In 1929 , he became an apprentice to a Whitby shipping company to learn to be a Navigation Officer . He made regular voyages to West Africa but in 1930 he fell ill with blackwater fever which ended his merchant navy career . Returning to North Ormesby , Middlesbrough he got a job as a lorry driver and married Alice Clixby with whom he had a son and a daughter . In 1939 he enlisted as a Territorial Army volunteer in 4th Battalion , The Green Howards . At the outbreak of World War II he was mobilised and joined the 6th Battalion , The Green Howards and went to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940 where he was employed as the Commanding Officer ' s dispatch rider . He was promoted from Lance Corporal to Sergeant during the evacuation from Dunkirk . He then fought from El Alamein to Tunis as part of the British 8th Army in the North African Campaign . Hollis was appointed Company Sergeant Major just before the invasion of Sicily in 1943 where he was wounded at the battle of Primosole Bridge . On 6 June 1944 in Normandy , France , Hollis was still a company sergeant major with the Green Howards , who were one of the assault battalions at Gold Beach . As the company moved inland from the beaches after the initial landings , Hollis went with his company commander to investigate two German pillboxes which had been by - passed . He rushed forward to the first pill - box , taking all but five of the occupants prisoner and then dealt with the second , taking 26 prisoners . Then he cleared a neighbouring trench . Later that day , he led an attack on an enemy position which contained a field gun and Spandau machine guns . After withdrawing he learned that two of his men had been left behind and told Major Lofthouse , his commanding officer , " I took them in . I will try to get them out . " Taking a grenade from one of his men Hollis carefully observed the enemy ' s pattern of behaviour and threw it at the most opportune moment . Unfortunately , he had forgotten to prime the grenade but the enemy did not know this and kept their heads down waiting for it to explode . By the time they realised their mistake Hollis was on top of them and had shot them . In September 1944 he was wounded in the leg and evacuated to England where he was decorated by King George VI on 10 October 1944 . After the war , he spent several years as a sandblaster in a local steelworks . He later became a partner in a motor repair business in Darlington before becoming a ship ' s engineer from 1950 until 1955 . He then trained as a publican and ran the ' Albion ' public house in Market Square , North Ormesby : the pub ' s name was changed to ' The Green Howard ' . The public house was demolished in 1970 and he moved to become the tenant of the ' Holywell View ' public house at Liverton Mines near Loftus . Hollis died on 8 February 1972 and was buried in Acklam Cemetery Middlesbrough . Citation . Hollis was 31 years old , and a Warrant Officer Class II ( Company Sergeant - Major ) in the 6th Battalion , Green Howards , British Army during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC : The medal . His Victoria Cross was bought by medal collector Sir Ernest Harrison OBE , chairman of Racal and Vodafone . Harrison later presented the medal to the Green Howards Museum in Richmond , North Yorkshire . Ten years later , he purchased , for the Green Howards , the Normandy hut which Hollis had attacked .