Born in Oxford on 9 November 1884, Noel Godfrey Chavasse,
was one of a pair of identical twins. (His brother, Christopher Maude, would
follow his father into the church and become Bishop of Rochester). He came to
Liverpool in 1900 when his father, Francis James, was appointed bishop of the
city. The Bishop’s Palace, standing at 19 Abercromby Square L7, was to be Noel’s
home for the remainder of his life. Suitably, the square was named after General
Sir Ralph Abercromby, commander if the British Army in Egypt, who died of his
wounds at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.
Chavasse attended the Liverpool College and then, along
with his twin brother, went up to Trinity College, Oxford. Both of the Chavasse
brothers would show themselves as excellent sportsmen while at Oxford, gaining
blues in athletics and both representing great Britain in the 400 metres in the
1908 Olympics. After graduating with first-class honours Chavasse spent a year
researching blood plasma at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford before reading medicine
at Liverpool University and qualifying MD in 1912.
Opting to specialise on orthopaedics Chavasse was able to
work under consultant Robert Jones, probably the leading surgeon in the field
at the time. He also began his military connection as a territorial serving as
the medical officer for the Liverpool Scottish (10th battalion, the King's
[Liverpool] regiment). Within months of the outbreak of war in
1914 Chavasse was serving on the front line. He applied himself vigorously to
the discipline of military medicine, pressing superiors for changes in approach
to minimise the disease which at any one time made a sizeable proportion of the
army unfit for duty. In June 1915 he was awarded the Military Cross. The
following year on 9 August 1916 on the
Somme his first Victoria Cross, for saving the lives of at least a score of men
whilst himself being under heavy and continuous fire. At Passchendaele in 1917
Chavasse was badly injured by a shell and despite making it to a field hospital
and undergoing surgery he died on 4th August 1917. In the days
leading up to his death he had repeatedly crossed into no man’s land in search
of injured men and his bravery resulted in the award of a second Victoria
Cross. He was the only man to receive two VC’s in the First World War and one
of only three at any time since the award’s inception.
His younger brother, Aidan,
had been killed at Ypres just some weeks before Noel Chavasse’s death. Shortly
before his death Noel had become engaged to his cousin Gladys.
There are probably more
commemorations to Chavasse than any other soldier. In Liverpool Chavasse Park
is named in honour of the family, and Noel is depicted in a statute sited in
Abercromby Square.
