Lieutenant Geoffrey St George Shillington Cather
108th Infantry Brigade, 9th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers
(Armagh, Monaghan and Cavan Volunteers)

For most conspicuous bravery near Hamel, France
1st July 1916

Age : 25

No known grave. Remembered on on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

VC on public display at the Regimental Museum The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Armagh, Northern Ireland)

Geoffrey Cather was born on October 11th 1890 at Streatham Hill south west London. In September 1914, he enlisted in the University and Public Schools corps and was then commissioned into the 9th battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers in May 1915.
On the eve of the Somme battle, the 9th battalion were just north of the river Ancre.They moved off just before 7.30 am to cross six hundred yards of No-Mans Land towards their objective of Beaucourt Station.
At roll-call at the end of the day of over six hundred men who had started off, just over five hundred were either killed, missing or wounded.
Later in the day the remnants of the battalion were withdrawn to the village of Hamel. Search parties were organised that evening to go back over no-mans land to look for their missing comrades. Lieutenant Cather as battalion adjutant led one of the parties. From 7pm untill mid-night he searched ‘No-mans-land’ and brought in three wounded men. Next morning at 8am he continued his search, brought in another wounded man and gave water to others arranging for their rescue later. Finally at 10.30am, he took water out to another man and was proceeding further on when he himself was killed. All this was carried out in full view of the enemy and under direct machine-gun fire and intermittent artillery fire. He set a splendid example of courage and self-sacrifice.

His Victoria Cross citation was gazetted on September 9th 1916 and presented to his family by King George at Buckingham Palace on March 31st 1917.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
WE WILL REMEMBER HIM

View and sign Guestbook
South Belfast Friends of the Somme Association and its website belfastsomme.com do not necessarily agree with all comments and statements made in the guest book, and cannot be held responsible for the content of external links placed on the guestbook. The guestbook is moderated and IP address recorded, so any vulgar, sectarian, degrading, raciast or bigoted comments will be removed and the violaters Internet Service Provider informed.