Victoria Cross | Jersey Heritage

Jack Thomas Counter was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest order of gallantry, for his actions during the First World War in 1918.

Born in Blandford, Dorset on 3^rd November 1898, Counter was educated at Blandford National School, before finding employment as an apprentice at a tea company. Too young to join the army at the outbreak of war in 1914, he enlisted in the British Army in February 1917, at age 18. He was posted to 1^st Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment, where preparations for the oncoming Arras Offensive had begun.

On 16^th April 1918, in a trench system close to Boisleux St Marc during the German Spring Offensive, the battalion support line was placed in a precarious situation. With their forward assault force cut off due to heavy bombardment earlier that morning, a report was needed from the front line, however the support line was separated from them by a road and then a forward slope (230m long), in full view of enemy positions.

The importance of the battlefield intelligence was crucial, and so a small party was sent to reach the front. In complete open ground, the group was fired at by enemy machine guns, resulting in the leader being killed and others in the group being wounded. It was decided that a single person may be more successful. One by one, men attempted the deadly sprint across the road and down the slope to the front line. Five volunteers endeavoured to make it to the front, but each watched as the man before him fell. Not one made it back alive.

Private Counter volunteered as the sixth man. By keeping his face to the ground, and using the banks of the road for cover, Counter was able to drag himself inch by inch until he made it to the front line, all while German machine guns fired overhead. With the vital knowledge now in hand, Counter had to face the same difficult task on the return to the support line. After safely making it back, the information he retrieved enabled the battalion commander to make a decision to counter-attack the German advance. This attack was successful, with the British reclaiming much of the land lost to the German offensive. Counter went on to complete five more runs between the two lines, carrying vital messages. It was after this heroic and selfless effort that he was awarded the Victoria Cross, reported in the London Gazette on 22^nd May 1918.

He had his official investiture ceremony on 22^nd June where he received his award from King George V, after which he travelled back home to Blandford where he received a hero’s welcome. With the majority of the town there to welcome him, Counter was presented with a £100 war savings certificate, and a gold pocket watch from his previous employer.

After finishing his service enlistment period, Counter left the army as a Corporal. In 1919, his battalion was stationed in Jersey, and when discharged in 1921, he came back to settle on the Island that he so fondly remembered, finding a job as a postman at the St. Ouen’s post office until 1925. Thereafter, he went back to England for a few years, working at a post office in Sudbury Common, Middlesex, before being drawn back to the Island for the final time in 1929. Continuing his postal job (this time in St. Helier), he married Ada Vauvert in 1921, and the couple had a daughter named Pearl. The family settled in First Tower, in an area now named ‘Jack Counter Close’. Counter was a well-known member of the local Royal British Legion, where he served on the committee and was often the standard bearer at remembrance parades.

Counter passed away in 1970, in his old home, while on a trip to Blandford with his sister, Gertrude. His ashes are interred at St Saviour’s Church. Private Counter’s actions on that day in 1918 have been memorialised in a number of ways, to forever preserve the memory of his selflessness and courage. A plaque can be found at St. Andrew’s Church, First Tower, while in Blandford, an English Heritage blue plaque can be found on the house in which he lived. In 1971, the Jersey Post Office released stamps in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Royal British Legion, with one dedicated to Jack Counter, featuring his portrait and an illustration of a Victoria Cross.

First Day Cover issued by Jersey Post to mark the 50th Anniversary of the British Legion

Purchased by the Société Jersiaise in 1989, Jack Counter’s medals are now a permanent part of the museum collections. As well as the VC, his medals include the British War Medal 1914-20, the Victory Medal 1914-19, the Imperial Service Medal, the King George VI Coronation Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. Counter, displaying his selfless attitude, had always conveyed that it was not he who was due the praise and honour of a hero, but the five men who preceded him. He is quoted as saying ‘the ones who died before me should have had it’, ‘I was lucky.’

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