FULLER, William Charles (VC)

Lance Corporal William Charles FULLER, Victoria Cross, 2nd Welsh Regiment. Court 5360
He was born 13th March 1884 at Newbridge Laugharne, Carmarthenshire and died 29th December 1974 aged 90 at 55, Westbury Street, Swansea, Wales.

He is laid to rest at Oystermouth Cemetery, West Glamorgan. S

erved in the Second Boer War, World War 1 Home Guard with The Welsh Regiment in World War 2 He also was awarded the Royal Humane Society Medal for Life Saving.

He was 30 years old, and a lance-corporal in the 2nd Battalion,The Welsh Regiment,British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 14 September 1914 near Chivy-sur-Aisne,France, Lance-Corporal Fuller advanced under very heavy enemy rifle and machine-gunfire to extract an officer who was mortally wounded, and carried him back to cover. Fuller won his VC for saving Captain Mark Haggard, nephew of Rider Haggard, who had fallen wounded. He carried him a distance estimated at 100 yards to a ridge where he managed to dress the officer's wounds. Capt Haggard asked L/Cpl Fuller to fetch his rifle from where he'd fell. He did not want the enemy to get it. Fuller managed to do this.
With the help of two others, Private Snooks and Lieutenant Melvin, Officer i/c the machine-gun section of the Welsh Regiment, they managed to get Haggard to the safety of a barn that was being used as a First-Aid dressing station.
L/Cpl Fuller remained with Captain Haggard trying to help him until the officer died later on that evening. His last words to Fuller were "Stick it, Welsh." After he'd died L/Cpl Fuller attended to two other officers who had also been brought to the barn wounded. (Lt. The Hon Fitzroy Somerset and Lt. Richards.) The barn came under heavy fire and the wounded men and officers were evacuated. Later it was razed to the ground with German shell-fire.
On the 29th of October he was wounded while dressing the wounds of Private Tagge a fellow soldier, shrapnel entered his right side, twelve inches in up to his shoulder blade and came to rest on his right lung. After he was sent to Swansea Hospital where they operated, removing the shrapnel. He was given a home posting after his recovery, as a successful recruiting sergeant in his native Wales