THE PRO PATRIA PROJECT
CRICHTON James
Cameron Highlanders, South Africa
14/131, Private, 2nd Battalion, Auckland Regiment
Home Guard Service WW2
18236 Legion of Frontiersmen, New Zealand

CITATION
Victoria Cross
Gazetted 15 November 1918, p13474
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when, although wounded in the foot, he continued with the advancing troops, despite difficult
canal and river obstacles.  When his platoon was subsequently forced back by a counter-attack he succeeded in carrying a message which
involved swimming a river and crossing an area swept by machinegun fire, subsequently rejoining his platoon.  Later he undertook on his own
initiative, to save a bridge which had been mined, and, although under close fire of machine guns and snipers, he succeeded in removing the
charges, returning with the fuses and detonators.  Though suffering from a painful wound he displayed the highest degree of valour and devotion to
     duty.

AWARDS
Victoria Cross
Queen’s South Africa Medal
Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902
1914-15 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal
1939-45 Star
War Medal 1939-45
New Zealand War Service Medal
Coronation Medal 1937
Coronation Medal 1953

NOTES
Born 15 July 1879, Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Died 25 September 1961, Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand.
Buried Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland. [RSA L, Row 4, Plot 79]

BIOGRAPHICAL
James Crichton was born at Carrickfergus, Ireland, on 15 July 1879.  Before he settled in New Zealand he had served with the British Cameron Highlanders, and had seen active service in South Africa. He enlisted in the 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 22 August 1914 at the age of 35. He embarked for Egypt in October of that year as a Corporal in the New Zealand Army Service Corps. He served on Gallipoli through October to December, 1915, and left for France in April, 1916, as a Company Quartermaster Sergeant.
In April, 1918, while serving as a Warrant Officer with 1st New Zealand Field Bakery, he voluntarily relinquished his rank and transferred as a Private to the Auckland Infantry Regiment.
He returned to New Zealand in June 1919 and was discharged in September of that year. In 1937 he attended the Coronation of King George VI as a Sergeant in the N.Z. Coronation Contingent.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Crichton_(soldier)