Personal info
- Name: Bert CRAIG
- D.O.B: 11th Mar, 1899
- D.O.A: 14th Oct, 1922
- D.O.D: 1st Dec, 1978
- Award: Edward Medal translated to George Cross
- Occupation at time of action: Miner, Nixon's Navigation Colliery
- Book: The Complete History - Volume 3
BETWEEN THE WARS
1919-39
The stresses of the First World War led to political revolution in much of Europe and, in extreme cases, social collapse. Even the victors, Britain and France, were not immune to the economic upheaval and labour unrest resulting from the transition from war to peace and the demobilization of hundreds of thousands of men. This made them extremely nervous of the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia and they decided to send aid to the anti-Bolshevik forces. However, an Allied North Russia Expeditionary Force had to be withdrawn once it became clear that internal opposition to the Bolsheviks had been defeated. In Britain a postwar boom failed to prove long-lasting and in May 1926 there was a General Strike, triggered by a crisis in the Mining Industry. The Great Depression followed in 1929 and by 1931 Britain was forced to abandon the Gold Standard. In large parts of the country and especially in the traditional industries there was widespread unemployment throughout the 1930s, symbolized by the Jarrow Crusade of 1936. Conditions were much worse on the Continent and the interwar period witnessed the rise of the Dictators. The coming to power in Germany of Hitler in 1933 was to lead inexorably to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. In the years of increasingly uneasy peace between 1919 and September 1939 only eleven VCs were awarded and of these only one, the award to Captain G P Meynell in 1935, took place outside the period 1919-21. Of the eleven awards, five related to actions against the Bolsheviks, four to actions on the North-West Frontier of India and one to an an engagement in what is now Iraq. The remaining award was that in 1921 to the American Unknown Warrior. Of the Albert, Edward and Empire Gallantry Medals awarded in the same period, 142 recipients lived long enough for their awards to be converted to the GC. The geographical distribution of the actions that occasioned the awards is witness to the Global spread of the British Empire, which reached its widest extent after the First World War. However, some of the awards, for gallantry in India, Egypt and the Sudan, and Palestine, reflected both the stresses in maintaining that dominion and the duties it entailed. After service personnel and policemen, coal miners formed the largest group of recipients, demonstrating the central importance of coal to the British economy and the dangers inherent in securing it. Those who worked in coal and gold mines in India and Africa were also honoured. Both in the mines and in industry as a whole, the threat posed by poisonous gases led to many awards. New industries brought new hazards with them. Other dangers overcome were of a more basic sort. Awards were also made to those who, throughout the Empire, confronted mad elephants, rabid dogs and marauding sharks.
Citation
His Majesty The KING has been graciously pleased to award the Edward Medal in Silver to Bert Craig in the following circumstances:– On 14th November, 1922, in the course of operations at Nixon’s Navigation Colliery at Mountain Ash, Glamorganshire, a workman named Jones was completely buried by a heavy fall of stones and rubbish. Four other men were present at the time, and made some attempt to get Jones out, as, although they could not see him, they could hear him moaning. Further falls, however, took place, and the four men, considering the risk too great, retreated under cover. At this moment Bert Craig, another workman at the Colliery, arrived on the scene, and hearing of what had happened at once ran to where Jones was buried and began to remove the stones. In spite of his appeals for help, the other men present hung back until the falls ceased, but they then came to Craig’s assistance, and Jones was extricated. All the time falls were taking place, and within two minutes of Jones being pulled out so large a fall took place that both he and Craig would certainly have been killed. Craig’s action was a very gallant one, and he undoubtedly saved Jones’s life. He was working under conditions of great danger, and his conduct appears even more gallant in view of the fact that he suffers from the result of a severe bullet wound in the head, and any blow might have been fatal.
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