John Spencer Dunville | |
Honorific Suffix: | VC |
Birth Date: | 7 May 1896 |
Birth Place: | Marylebone, England |
Death Place: | Villers-Faucon, France |
Placeofburial: | Villers-Faucon Communal Cemetery |
Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
Branch: | British Army |
Serviceyears: | 1914–1917 |
Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
Unit: | 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons 1st (Royal) Dragoons |
Battles: | First World War |
Awards: | Victoria Cross |
John Spencer Dunville, (7 May 1896 – 26 June 1917) was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Dunville was born on 7 May 1896 in Marylebone, London, to Colonel John Dunville Dunville and Violet Anne Blanch Dunville (née Lambart). His father was from Holywood, County Down and was chairman of Dunville & Co whisky distillers.[1] Dunville was educated at Ludgrove School and Eton College, and was a member of the Officers' Training Corps from May 1912 to July 1914. He passed matriculation for Trinity College, Cambridge, but with the outbreak of the First World War joined the army instead.[2]
He was aged 21 and a second lieutenant in the 1st (Royal) Dragoons, British Army during the First World War when he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 25 June 1917 near Épehy, France.
Second Lieutenant John Spencer Dunville died of wounds on 26 June 1917, the day after performing the deed, and is interred at the Villiers-Faucon Communal Cemetery, Somme, France, (Plot No. A21).[3]
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Household Cavalry Museum in Horse Guards in London.