Sad news: Bill Speakman, Altrincham's great war hero and the first person to receive a Victoria Cross from Queen Elizabeth, dies aged 90 - Altrincham Today Citation here, making no mention of the beer bottles being thrown, or the fact he appeared to have been, basically, absolutely furious during the action: 1950 - 1953, The Victoria Cross and the George Cross Korean War. VC GC
My Dad told me he travelled to the UK from Korea to get to get his VC on ones of the boats from the Line he worked for. Apparently he was drunk most of the way home and kept wanting to fight the crew so they locked him up in the brig (sp).
A solid tradition of promotions quickly followed by demotions for fighting it seems. That, and killing Her Majesty's enemies.
Full Regimental Obituary and funeral details here: Sergeant William Speakman VC - Obituary and Funeral Arrangements
Illustrated London News 9th February 1952 Sphere 8th March 1952 Illustrated London News 22nd March 1952 Tatler 12th March 1952 Illustrated London News 5th February 1952 Sphere 5th February 1952 Sphere 9th February 1952 Illustrated News 8th March 1952 Berwick News 26th February 1952
I see that some reports say it was 6,000 Chinese whilst others say 600 - reporting doesn't seem to have changed much since then TD
As an addition to this thread. Here is a link to the KOSB website showing the full details for Bill Speakman's funeral Order of Service: THE FUNERAL OF SERGEANT BILL SPEAKMAN VC – ORDER OF SERVICE – The King's Own Scottish Borderers
My Father, George Stedeford, was one of the volunteers from the Black Watch to go with Bill from Germany, and join first the Argyll's and then stay on in Korea with the KOSB. He was part of the action on that fateful day. RIP gentlemen.
I saw this film mentioned on another website today. It is to do with the VC generally, but has some nice footage of Bill Speakman around 3 minutes 30 seconds in:
Out and about, on the lam, visiting friends, amis, vrienden, freunde. Dug this out a couple of days ago; brought it along for a re-read, for company (note: not a security blanket!) No scanner, photographed via phone, hope it's legible. And as mentioned via Bamboo43's link in his post #6 above; a little more detail here. At 12 noon we all cast a small shadow; but some are giants no matter the time of day. Bill Speakman VC. Kind regards, always remember, never forget, Jim.