Noel Chavasse: the First World War’s bravest soldier
Noel Chavasse: the First World War’s bravest soldier One hundred years ago this weekend, Captain Noel Chavasse died saving lives at the Battle of Passchendaele. The only soldier in the Great War to receive two Victoria Crosses, his private letters reveal the grim reality of life in the trenches Selfless: Noel Chavasse was a doctor, Olympic athlete and captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps In the late spring of 1915, Captain Noel Chavasse, a 30-year-old army doctor, was busy treating the wounded on the Belgian front. He would go on to become the only man during the Great War to receive the VC and Bar, the equivalent of two Victoria Crosses. But already he was renowned for putting the needs of his men before his own safety and for making full use of his athletic prowess in the trenches. An unnamed soldier who witnessed one of Chavasse’s acts of bravery wrote: “While on duty as a signaller at Battalion HQ, I received a telephone message from the front line