William Henry Metcalf VC MM*

b. 29/01/1894 Talmadge, Maine, USA. d. 08/08/1968 South Portland, Maine, USA.

William Henry Metcalf (1894-1968) was born 29th January 1894 at Talmadge, Washington County, Maine, USA. His father, Henry William Metcalf, was a labourer from Talmadge. He married Theresa Lorinza Varnum possibly in 1882. Henry died in 1900 when William was just six, and his mother remarried to Thomas Henry Rice on 27th October 1906 at St Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. Billy, as he became known, had eleven siblings from his mother’s two marriages.

Billy was educated at the Grammar School, Waite, Washington County, Maine. He worked as a garage mechanic and later became a barber. He was on a fishing trip with friends on the Miramachi River, New Brunswick when he heard about the outbreak of war. He enlisted in the 71st Regiment, Canadian Militia at Fredericton, New Brunswick on 13th or 15th August 1914.

William H Metcalf
VC MM*

When his mother found out, she raised the roof. When his ship landed in England, the American Ambassador was waiting at the dock and went down the line of men looking for one William Henry Metcalf. When he found a man by that name, he confronted him but the soldier said he was from St. David Parish, New Brunswick, not the particular Metcalf the Ambassador was looking for. The commander interjected hopefully that he knew there were a lot of Metcalfs in St. David Parish. The Ambassador withdrew.

He transferred to 12th Battalion CEF at Valcartier, Quebec on 23rd September, and embarked on 1st October aboard SS Scotian arriving in England on 14th October. Billy transferred to 16th Battalion and embarked for France on 13th May 1915. He was involved in the latter stages of the Second Battle of Ypres.

Metcalf received the Military Medal in 1916 for his part in the fighting during the Battle of the Somme. On the 7th October, word was brought to the Battalion HQ that a man lying a trench was bleeding to death some distance away. Metcalf volunteered to go and bind up the wound, although the trench was under heavy shell fire. During the next two days, he repeatedly went over heavily shelled ground repairing broken telephone wires, thus maintaining communication with Brigade HQ.

He was awarded a Bar to his Military Medal during the first day of the Battle of Amiens on 8th August 1918 when he was in charge of a signal section. He carried a telephone line forward with the first wave, and established a signal station. He went out several times into no man’s land to carry out repairs.

Lance-Corporal Metcalf earned the Victoria Cross on 2 September 1918 near Cagnicourt in France during the Second Battle of Arras. On that day, the right flank of an attack by his battalion on a German trench was being held up by heavy resistance. Having assessed the situation, Metcalf hurried forward under intense machine gun fire to contact a tank passing to his left. Using a signal flag, he walked in front of the tank and directed it along the length of the enemy trench. As the tank fired down into the German trench, the machine gun positions were eliminated and heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy defenders. Though he was wounded in this action, Lance-Corporal Metcalf continued to advance until he was ordered out of the firing line to have his wound treated.

William Metcalf survived the First World War and returned to his native Maine and worked as a motor mechanic for the rest of his life. William Henry Metcalf married a English nurse Dorothy Holland and brought her home to Maine. They had four children together. He attended two VC reunions – the VC Dinner at the House of Lords in 1929 and the VC Centenary Celebrations at Hyde Park, London in 1956. He also attended the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.

He died on 8th August 1968 in South Portland and was buried in the Bayside Cemetery, Eastport. At his funeral his casket was covered with the Union Flag of Great Britain and among those in attendance were more than forty members of the Royal Canadian Legion. The Royal Canadian Legion have now replaced the headstone over William Metcalf’s grave to reflect more his award of the Victoria Cross. A service of rededication took place at the Bayside Cemetery on Sunday, 14th October 2012, to commemorate the name of William Metcalf VC MM & Bar.

In November 1998 the Canadian Scottish Regiment Museum held an exhibition of the Regiment’s Victoria Crosses, loaned to the museum by the Canadian War Museum and families of holders. Following an invitation by the museum’s curator, the son and grandson of William Metcalf journeyed from Maine, and spent a week in the city during the period of the exhibition. Stanley Metcalf, William’s son, was so impressed with the exhibition he decided to present his father’s Victoria Cross medal group, along with his scrapbook and other associated items to the Canadian Scottish Museum for permanent safekeeping.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: CANADIAN SCOTTISH MUSEUM, VICTORIA, CANADA.

BURIAL PLACE: BAY SIDE CEMETERY, EASTPORT, MAINE, USA.

SECTION D. PLOT 11.