THE DEATH HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED OF CAPTAIN PHILIP GARDNER VC, MC, 4TH ROYAL TANK REGIMENT, WHO WON HIS VICTORIA CROSS IN NORTH AFRICA DURING WW II.
The Times, 18th February 2003

The death has been announced of Captain Philip Gardner VC, MC, 4th Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps. Gardner joined the Westminster Dragoons of the Territorial Army as a trooper in 1938 and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1940. He joined the 4th Royal Tanks in the Western Desert, just in time to take part in the ill-fated "Battleaxe" offensive in June 1941.


Captain Philip Gardner was serving with the 4th Royal Tank Regiment in 32nd Tank Brigade in the Western Desert at the time of the British "Crusader" offensive, in the autumn of 1941, designed to destroy the bulk of Rommel's armour and force him to abandon his siege of the port of Tobruk.

For the award of the Victoria Cross

[ London Gazette, 10 February 1942 ], Tobruk, Libya, 23 November 1941, Captain Philip John Gardner, 4th Royal Tank Regiment.

On the morning of 23rd November 1941, Captain Gardner was ordered to take two tanks to the assistance of two armoured cars of the King's Dragoon Guards which were out of action and under fire in close proximity to the enemy, southeast of Tobruk.

He found the two cars halted two hundred yards apart, being heavily fired on at close range and gradually smashed to pieces. Ordering the other tank to give him covering fire, Captain Gardner manoeuvred his own close up to the foremost car: he then dismounted in the face of intense anti-tank and machine gun fire and secured a tow rope to the car. Seeing an officer lying beside it with his legs blown off, he lifted him into the car and gave the order to tow. The tow rope, however, broke, and Captain Gardner returned to the armoured car, being immediately wounded in the arm and leg: despite his wounds he lifted the other officer out of the car and carried him back to the tank, placing him on the back engine louvres and climbing alongside to hold him on. While the tank was being driven back to safety it was subjected to heavy shellfire and the loader killed.

The courage, determination and complete disregard for his own safety displayed by Captain Gardner enabled him, despite his own wounds, and in the face of intense fire at close range, to save the life of his fellow officer, in circumstances fraught with great difficulty and danger.

Phiip Gardner was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on the 18th May 1945.


Medal entitlement of Captain Philip Gardner - 4th Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps

  • Victoria Cross
  • Military Cross ( MC )
  • 1939 - 45 Star
  • Africa Star
  • War Medal ( 1939-45 )
  • Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal ( 1953 )
  • Efficiency Medal

VC Deaths

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Iain Stewart, 18 February 2003