Richard Annand
recipient of the Victoria Cross (1914–2004)
Captain Richard Wallace Annand (5 November 1914 – 24 December 2004) 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. This was the first VC awarded to a member of the British Army in the Second World War.
Early life
Annand was born in South Shields, County Durham, England, and was the son of Lieutenant-Commander Wallace Moir Annand. His father was killed with the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division at Gallipoli in June 1915. He was educated at Pocklington School, East Yorkshire. Upon leaving school he worked at the National Provincial Bank first at South Shields and then in Rugby and finally in London.
Military career
In 1933, Annand joined the Tyne Division of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a midshipman. He was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1936 and completed both a navigation and a gunnery course. In 1937 he applied for a commission in the Royal Navy but was refused because of his age.
Annand was commissioned into the Supplementary Reserve of Officers as a second lieutenant of the Durham Light Infantry on 29 January 1938.
The public source identifies “Richard Annand” as recipient of the Victoria Cross (1914–2004). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Richard, Annand and recipient.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7323746. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 2004, 1915 and 1933.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Annand” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.