Army

First Jewish Victoria Cross Recipient Honoured

A memorial service has been held to celebrate the achievements of the first Jewish soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross, Lieutenant Frank Alexander de Pass.

Lieutenant de Pass, of the 34th Prince Albert Victor’s Own Poona Horse, 9th (Secunderabad) Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division, Indian Army, was honoured on Tuesday with a VC commemorative paving stone beside the Ministry of Defence.

Frank Alexander de Pass was born on 26 Apr 1887, at 2 Lancaster Gate Terrace, Kensington.

He was the son of Sir Eliot Arthur de Pass, a West India merchant and President of the West India Committee.

A scholar of Rugby School, Frank attended the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1906.

VC recipient Sgt Johnson Beharry from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (right) talks to Robert de Pass, Frank de Pass's great-nephew.

VC recipient Sgt Johnson Beharry VC from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (right) talks to Robert de Pass, Frank de Pass's great nephew

Lieutenant de Pass was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery near Festubert on the 24th November in 1914.

On 23 November 1914, the Germans had dug a sap (small forward trench) up to the allied frontline trench manned by 34th Prince Albert Victor’s Own Poona Horse, and blown a breach in it.

The enemy had blocked their sap with a sandbag traverse and on the 24th November, de Pass, with three Indian troopers, had defied enemy bombing to crawl up the sap and blow up the traverse.

He subsequently rescued, under heavy fire, a wounded man who was lying exposed in the open.

The following day the sap was re-occupied by the Germans, and during an attempt to secure the British trench by repairing the parapet de Pass was shot and killed by a sniper from behind the traverse.

The commemorative paving stone was laid in Victoria Embankment Gardens between the Ministry of Defence and The Embankment.

The citation was read out by Lieutenant Colonel Jonny Kitson, The Rifles, a great nephew of de Pass, before the paving stone was unveiled.

Amongst those in attendance at the ceremony were Eric Pickles, Secretary of State from the Department of Communities and Local Government, Lord Mayor of Westminster, Cllr Audrey Lewis, and the Deputy Commander of the Army in London, Brigadier Richard Smith.

Lieutenant de Pass’s dress tunic is now on display at the Jewish Military Museum, in Hendon, Middlesex. His name is also on the Bevis Marks Synagogue War Memorial, City of London, where his family were members; and is inscribed on the Memorial Gates, at Hyde Park Corner.