Lord Ashcroft pays his respects to fallen soldiers at the memorial cemetery at Crete. Born in Christchurch in 1908, Charles Upham joined the 2nd NZ Expeditionary Force soon after war broke out in September 1939. Upham earned the VC for outstanding gallantry and leadership in Crete in May 1941, and his Bar at Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt, in July 1942. “When his company was forced to withdraw, Upham carried a wounded comrade back under fire,” Lord Ashcroft writes. After the war Upham returned to farming life in Canterbury, where he died in 1994 surrounded by his wife and daughters.

Source: Stuff November 19, 2021 00:32 UTC