Lance Corporal Samuel Frickleton took part in the attack on Messines, Belgium, on 7 June 1917. When his unit was pinned down by heavy machine-gun fire, he singlehandedly attacked two machine-gun posts, killing their crews. For these acts of extreme gallantry, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Charles Hazlitt Upham is probably New Zealand's most famous soldier. His actions in Crete in 1941 and Egypt in 1942 led to his becoming one of only three people – and the only combat soldier – ever to win
the Victoria Cross twice.
A rifleman in the 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, Samuel Frickleton won his Victoria Cross during the attack at Messines on 7 June 1917.
Following his death, Henry Nicholas was buried in the French cemetery at Beaudignies. However, as the battalion wished to show greater respect, his body was exhumed and reinterred, with full military honours, in the Vertigneul churchyard in northern France.
