For Valour: A First-Day Battle of the Somme VC

Temporary-Major Stewart Walter Loudoun-Shand of the Yorkshire Regiment was one of nine men to receive the Victoria Cross – Britain’s highest award for valour ‘in the face of the enemy’ – on the first-day of the Battle of the Somme, fought from 1 July to 18 November 1916. Of those nine, only three would survive that fateful day; Loudoun-Shand, however, was not to be one of the lucky ones.

Born in Ceylon on 8 October 1879, Loudoun-Shand was the son of a plantation owner and one of ten children....