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George McKenzie Samson VC (7 January 1889 – 28 February 1923) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross,the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Samson was from Carnoustie in Angus,26 years old,and a seaman in the Royal Naval Reserve during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 25 April 1915 during the landing at V Beach,Cape Helles, Gallipoli Turkey,Seaman Samson,with three other men (George Leslie Drewry, Wilfred St. Aubyn Malleson,and William Charles Williams) was assisting the commander (Edward Unwin) of their ship HMS River Clyde,at the work of securing the lighters. He worked all day under very heavy fire,attending wounded and getting out lines. He was eventually dangerously wounded by Maxim fire.

He later achieved the rank of petty officer and rejoined the Merchant Navy after the war. His VC is in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery in the Imperial War Museum in London.

The Victoria Cross and campaign medals awarded to Petty Officer George Samson,Royal Naval Reerve ( SS ‘River Clyde’) a Gallipoli ‘V’Beach award,have been sold at auction by Dix Noonan Webb for a hammer price of £210,000.  (13th December 2007) The group was purchased on behalf of the Michael Ashcroft Trust,the holding institution for Lord Ashcroft’s VC Collection.

Medal entitlement of Petty Officer George Samson,Royal Naval Reserve ( SS ‘River Clyde’)

• Victoria Cross
• 1914-15 Star
• British War Medal ( 1914-20 )
• Victory Medal ( 1914-19 )
• Medaille Militaire ( France )

As the River Clyde grounded,the lighters that were to form the bridge were run out ahead,and the troops began to pour out of the holes in her sides and down the gangways;but the lighters failed to reach their proper stations. A gap was left between two of them which it was impossible for the men to cross,and scores were shot down as they stood helpless on the uncompleted bridge. Commander Unwin and Able Seaman William Williams made a line fast to one of the drifting lighters and,dropping over the side,waded through the water and towed the barge towards a spit of rock that gave direct access to the shore.

Midshipman George Drewry,of the Royal Naval Reserve,was already in the water wading ashore to make a land end of the towing rope. In the meantime,Commander Unwin and Williams had nearly reached the rock with the lighter in tow when they found the rope they had was not long enough. Drewry at once went back to the ship to get another length,and while the other two were waiting,Williams was shot as he stood breast-deep in the water. Unwin carried him back to the lighter but Williams was already dead. When Drewry returned with the rope it did not take long to make the lighter fast,and then the troops began at once to pour across the shot-swept bridge.

Presently a shot severed the lashing rope,and again the lighters went adrift. Midshipman Drewry was onboard the inshore barge,but was struck in the head by a fragment of shell,but he hastily bound his wound with a soldier’s scarf,and jumping overboard with a line between his teeth,swam towards the other lighter. Once again the rope was too short but Midshipman Malleson threw himself over the side and succeeded in making the connection again;but once more it was broken,and although Malleson made two further attempts to carry a rope he was unsuccessful.

Another hero of this costly exploit was Seaman George Samson,Royal Naval Reserve,who remained on the lighters the whole of the day,busying himself among the wounded and giving all the assistance he could to the officers as they carried the lines from lighter to lighter.

The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officers and men for the conspicuous acts of bravery mentioned in the foregoing dispatch.

• Commander Edward Unwin,Royal Navy
• Midshipman George Leslie Drewry,Royal Naval Reserve
• Midshipman Wilfred St Aubyn Malleson,Royal Navy
• Able Seaman William Charles Williams,Royal Navy ( posthumous )
• Seaman George Mckenzie Samson,Royal Naval Reserve

Summary:At Gallipoli,Samson was on board River Clyde,a tramp steamer that was attempting to land 2000 troops onto V Beach,when lighters forming the bridge between the steamer and the shore began to drift apart. Under fierce machine gun fire,he busied himself among the wounded and offered assistance to those repairing the bridge. He was hit over and over again,and when he returned to England,his body still contained a dozen pieces of shrapnel.

George Samson was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on the 5th October 1915.

The River Clyde’s surgeon,Dr P Burrowes-Kelly,DSO,commented “Samson was most prominent through 25-26 April. He effected many daring rescues of the wounded,stowed them carefully away in the hopper,and treated them himself until medical assistance was forthcoming. In the intervals he devoted his time to attending to snipers and was prominent in the close fighting on ‘V’beach on the night of 25 April. He was eventually shot by a Maxim machine-gun and wounded in nineteen places.”

Post-war Samson found employment back in the Merchant Navy,sailing out of Dundee as Quarter-Master of the tanker Dosina,and it was in this capacity that he fell ill during a voyage to the Gulf of Mexico in early 1923. Transferred to the S.S. Strombus,bound for Bermuda,he died from double pneumonia on 23 February,and was buried with full military honours in the military section of the island’s Methodist Cemetery in St. George’s,Bermuda.

THE PEOPLE’S JOURNAL,SUNDAY,MARCH 3,1923
CARNOUSTIE MAN FIRST TO LAND IN GALLIPOLI
Seaman George Samson V.C.,Dies in Bermudas – special to People’s Journal (Thanks to Fiona Leslie for sharing this information)

Death has claimed George Samson,Carnoustie’s sailor V C,who on that memorable morning in April 1915,when the British forced a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula,survived the withering hail of fire that descended upon the invaders.

Following his vocation s a seaman,Samson shipped at Dundee as a member of the crew of the new steamer Dosina. In his last letter to his parents in Carnoustie,written in the Gulf of Mexico,he complained that he was not feeling very well,and mentioned that if his ship happened to fall in with any of the other vessels belonging to the owners of the Dosina,he hoped to be transferred and sent home.

A month elapsed without any further word from Samson,and then came the sad tidings of his death. This message revealed that effect had been given to the ship with the view of having him sent home for health reasons,but he did not survive to see again the land whose cause he had served with such gallantry.
In his impaired health he proved a victim to double pneumonia,and at ten o’clock one morning he passed away a the Bermudas. Twenty-four hours later he was buried with full honours.

SAMSON’S STORY
The story of Seaman Samson’s conspicuous bravery was one of the epics of the war. A son of Carnoustie,he was a tall,powerfully-built young man,and although he was dangerously wounded in the course of the daring exploit – he was hit by Maxim gun bullets – he made a wonderful recovery. 

He told me on his return home to Carnoustie the story of his great adventure. In his telling it was a simple,modest tale but into it could be read a wealth of thrill and daring that might satisfy most people for a lifetime.
“Commander Unwin,of the Hussar” he told me,2asked for volunteers from his ship to man the troopship River Clyde,which was to be run ashore. The whole ship’s company volunteered. At this time I was acting as interpreter for Rear-Admiral Wemyss,being able to speak Greek and Turkish.

“When I came on deck I found that all the men required had been picked,and I wasn’t among them. I went up to Commander Unwin and complained that I had not been given the chance to go ashore with others,as I thought,considering the work I had been doing,I should have got the first refusal.”

“Who said you weren’t going!” asked the Commander. “I have been told that I could not get,as I was needed by the Admiral.” I replied.

“But who’s to talk to the Greeks in the hopper if you don’t come? None of us can speak Greek. Let’s go and see the Admiral.”

“Well,“ added Samson,“to the Admiral we went. When I was taken before him he asked if I really wanted to go with the River Clyde. I said I did,as I thought I should get first refusal after doing the work I had been doing.”

“Don’t forget,” said Rear Admiral Wemyss,“that you are not going on a pic-nic. There are eighteen of my men going on the steamer,and if one of them returns alive I shall congratulate myself.”

“When I heard them trying to discourage me from going,” said Samson with a twinkle in his eye,“that made me all the more determined to go,and I told them that I wished to go. So I had my way.

FIRST MAN ASHORE
“ I was on a small hopper,”,continued Samson. “Its duty was to run ahead of the River Clyde and get on to the beach,as it drew very little water. Midshipman G.L. Drewry was in charge,and with us was a crew of six Greeks. We had four big gangways on board,each weighing about 5cwts.,and our duty was to shove them down in front so as to make a landing.

“The warships were all this time bombarding the shore,and it looked as if not even a flea could live under the rain of shells. Not a shot was fired at us as we reached the beach. We thought we were going to have a pic-nic,when all at once out buzzed the rattle of rifle and machine gun fire. Whenever the firing started the Greeks bolted down into the engine-room. “While Mr Drewry and I were trying our best to get the gangways over into position he was hit by a bullet over the left eye and knocked over the side. I thought he was killed but I was delighted and surprised to see him an hour afterwards with a bandage round his head,and as active as ever. I continued working on the hopper and on the beach all day,and assisted in taking off wounded.

“I was about thirty times off and on the hopper. We managed to take fifteen wounded on board the hopper on the first day,and were able to remove them when darkness fell.

“According to our commander,I was the first man ashore at Gallipoli. A midshipman,belonging to the Cornwallis was wounded,and I was carrying him on board the hopper when he was hit on the head by a bullet and killed. This was about 11am on the 25th.

“The landing had started at 5am,but we could not fire from the beach until well on in the afternoon. About 4.30pm we got the bayonet on the job,and got into the village. The terrible ordeal – for our losses at the landing were very heavy,and it was sheer murder landing – went on until about 1.30pm on the 26th,when I was knocked over,hit in 17 different places by machine gun fire. Curiously,about 5 minutes afterwards,the Turks were on the run.”

I remember being present at a happy gathering of the Samson family,when George met his mother for the first time after being notified that he had been awarded the V.C. “ Aren’t ye prood ye won it,Geordie?” Mrs Samson asked,with the light of a mother’s pride in a worthy son showing in every line of her face.

“It wasna my fault I got it” said Samson enigmatically,and then he added frankly,“All the same,I’ll never be prouder of getting’ anything in life than getting’ this”

On his journey North to Scotland after recovering from his injuries,Samson figured in an amusing incident. As travelling companions fate provided him with a clergyman and a schoolmaster of the busybody type. When the conversation turned upon the war,Samson,who was in civilian clothes,made the casual comment that it was a serious business,and this gave the minister the opening for which he seemed to be fidgeting.

“And if it is such a serious business,why are you not doing something to help your country?” he enquired with a purposeful glance,adding,“I think it would suit you much better to be in the army”

Teasingly,but truthfully,Seaman Samson assured the angry parson that he had no intention of joining the army,and this added fuel to his critic’s wrath. “You are a slacker,” and Samson contented himself by remarking that he might very well be in khaki himself.

The farcical position into which the minister had allowed his fervour to carry him was revealed to him on reaching Edinburgh,when Samson – with thirteen bullets still in his body – coolly drew his uniform from the place where he had deposited it. “Oh,” said the schoolmaster,“we thought you were one of the lads who would not go.” But the minister was silent,and together they slunk away in rather shamefaced fashion,with a smile from Samson to keep them company.

A ROVING LIFE
Seaman Samson was 26 years of age at the time he gained the Victoria Cross,and into his years he had crowded an abundance of incident. After leaving school in Carnoustie – he was a fellow pupil there of Corporal Jarvis,who also won a V.C. – he at once gratified a roving disposition,and went out to Buenos Ayres with a consignment of prize cattle from Carnoustie. Subsequently,he took employment on a big cattle ranch in the Argentina,for about eighteen months.

Returning to Scotland,he joined the K.O.S.B.’s,but in a year’s time he was ready for another change,and went to the Arctic with a whaling vessel. In this spirit of restlessness he visited practically every country in the world,and two years previous to the outbreak of war,he was working at Smyrna,in the service of a company that owned the gas works and railway.

At the declaration of war,as a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve,he went to Port Said to try to join one of the war fleet,but he was required to proceed to Malta,and there he joined the H.M.S. Hussar,which was being fitted out for war service.

Samson had the unique distinction of being the first seaman to win the V.C. in a period of fifty years.