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continually sniped at.”
Ackroyd rescued many of the wounded from the 1st South African Infantry
Brigade and there is a memorial to him in the room commemorating Delville
Wood at Fort Beaufort Historical Museum, South Africa.. At the beginning
of August, he was showing signs of severe nervous exhaustion he was
reluctantly invalided home on 11 August 1916 for six weeks of leave. Of
the opinion that he had recovered, by September Harold was pestering the
Army Medical Board to allow him to return to his regiment in France, and
they nally agreed, so he returned in December 1916.
Ypres: The 6th Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment took part in the
third battle of Ypres - better known as the battle of Passchendaele. It was
on the rst day of the battle (31 July 1917), when the actions occurred
which saw Harold receive 23 separate recommendations for the Victoria
Cross. He was subsequently awarded this and his citation is as follows:
“For most conspicuous bravery. During recent operations Capt. Ackroyd
displayed the greatest gallantry and devotion to duty. Utterly regardless of
danger, he worked continuously for many hours up and down and in front
of the line tending the wounded and saving the lives of ofcers and men. In
so doing he had to move across the open under heavy machine-gun, rie
and shell re. He carried a wounded ofcer to a place of safety under very
heavy re. On another occasion he went some way in front of our advanced
line and brought in a wounded man under continuous sniping and machine-
gun re. His heroism was the means of saving many lives, and provided
a magnicent example of courage, cheerfulness, and determination to the
ghting men in whose midst he was carrying out his splendid work. This