Fred Potts

Frederick William Owen Potts VC (18 December 1892 – 3 November 1943), more commonly known as Fred Potts, was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Potts was born on 18 December 1892, and first came to public notice in 1913, when he saved a five year old boy named Charles Rex from drowning in the River Thames. By 1915, he was 22 years old, and a private in the 1/1st The Berkshire Yeomanry of the British Army. During the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 21 August 1915 in the attack on Hill 70, Private Potts (although wounded in the thigh) remained for over 48 hours under the Turkish trenches with another private from his regiment who was severely wounded, and unable to move. He finally fixed a shovel to the equipment of his wounded comrade and using this as a sledge, dragged the man back over 600 yards to safety, being under fire all the way.

Potts was born and raised on Edgehill Street in the Katesgrove area of Reading. After the war, during which he eventually achieved the rank of lance-corporal, he kept a tailor's shop on the parallel Alpine Street. Potts died on 3 November 1943 at the age of 50. His grave is at Reading Crematorium, whilst his medals are held by the Imperial War Museum.

The man he saved at Gallipoli was a fellow member of the Berkshire Yeomanry called Arthur Andrews who also came from Reading. Arthur survived until 1980, when he died at the age of 89. Charles Rex also survived until he was 87. In 2009, as the result of the production of a BBC radio documentary on Potts, a reunion occurred between the relatives of the two soldiers at the Imperial War Museum.

During Prime Minister's Questions on 20 January 2010, Martin Salter, Member of Parliament for Reading West, indicated that there were plans to provide a permanent memorial to Trooper Potts.