In a letter to his mother Lieutenant Dimmer wrote a brief account of how he won the V.C. on November 12, 1914, at Klein Zillebeke. He says: "Here is how it all happened. On Thursday last, at about one o'clock, we were suddenly attacked by the Prussian Guards. They shelled us unmercifully, and poured in a perfect hail of bullets at a range of about 100 yards. I got my Maxims going, but they smashed one up almost immediately, and then turned all their attention to the gun I was with, and succeeded in smashing that too; but before they completed the job I had been twice wounded, and was finally knocked out with the gun. My face is spattered with pieces of my gun and pieces of shell, and I have a bullet in my face and four small holes in my right shoulder. It made rather a nasty mess of me at first, but now that I am washed and my wounds dressed I look quite right." Lieutenant Dimmer's commanding officer declared that by holding on to his gun after he had been shot five times, he saved the whole battalion, if not the whole line, on at least three occasions. I have told you Lieutenant Dimmer's story thus fully because it shows very clearly how a man of grit and ability and devotion can win his way by sheer merit in the British army. In the German army, as you know, only men of a certain social class are appointed as officers. Major Dimmer (to which rank he was subsequently promoted) is only one of thousands who have risen from the ranks to distinction in the service of Britain. The story of his career and of how he won the highest award of valour sets a fine example to all young soldiers. Bandsman Thomas Edward Rendle, 1st Battalion, the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. In time of war bandsmen serve as stretcher-bearers, and their duty is to convey the wounded from the field of battle to the dressing stations and ambulances. How Bandsman Rendle won the Victoria Cross on 20th November, at a village about a mile and a half west of Messines, is best told in the words of an officer of the Cornwalls:-- "Two shells pitched into the trench only about thirty yards from me, and blew ten men to pieces. They also blew down the front part of the trench, and the earth filled up the dug-out part. This was very annoying, as it divided our trench into two parts, and made it impossible to get from one half to the other without running across this open piece of ground, about five or six yards wide. Of course, the Germans realized this at once, and put up a machine gun to cover this space, so that any one who crossed it carried his life very much in his hands.