Joel Halliwell VC (1881-1958)
Born in Middleton on 29th December 1881, Lance Corporal Joel Halliwell was to be awarded the Victoria Cross for '...conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty'.
On 27 May 1918, Halliwell was captured by the Germans and remained a prisoner with them for a short time before he managed to escape. On his way back to the British lines, seeing many wounded comrades lying on the ground, he mounted a stray German horse which he rode back to pick up a wounded man and brought him back to safety, in spite of heavy shellfire. He went on to repeat this process, back and forth, through heavy enemy gunfire, with no thought for his own safety, some ten times, until his horse received a severe wound and he could no longer continue.
Lance Corporal Halliwell was a modest man, maintaining that he had simply done as he was told and that any other man in his battalion would have done what he had done if they had the chance, as they never thought of anything but their duty.
He returned to Middleton amid public jubilation and a civic welcome by the Mayor and Mayoress of the borough.
Joel Halliwell died on the 14th June 1958.
