Editing Percy Hansen

{{Short description|Recipient of the Victoria Cross}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Percy Hansen
|image= VCPercyHowardHansen.jpg
|image_size= 
|alt= 
|caption= 
|nickname= 
|birth_date= {{birth date|1890|10|26|df=y}}
|birth_place= [[Durban]], South Africa
|death_date= {{death date and age|1951|2|12|1890|10|26|df=y}}
|death_place= [[Copenhagen]], Denmark
|placeofburial= [[Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen|Garrison Cemetery]], Copenhagen
|allegiance= United Kingdom
|branch= [[British Army]]
|serviceyears= 1911–1946
|rank= [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]]
|servicenumber= 6724
|unit= [[Royal Lincolnshire Regiment|Lincolnshire Regiment]]
|commands= 2nd Battalion, [[Royal Lincolnshire Regiment|Lincolnshire Regiment]]
|battles= [[First World War]]<br/>[[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt in Palestine]]<br/>[[Second World War]]
|awards= [[Victoria Cross]]<br/>[[Distinguished Service Order]]<br/>[[Military Cross]]<br/>[[Mentioned in Despatches]] (5)<br/>[[Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France)|Croix de guerre]] (France)<br/>[[Order of St. Olav|Commander of the Royal Order of St. Olav]] (Norway)<br/>[[Officer of the Legion of Merit]] (United States)
|relations= 
|laterwork= 
}}
[[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] '''Percy Howard Hansen''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|VC|DSO|MC}} (26 October 1890 – 12 February 1951) was a [[British Army]] officer and recipient of the [[Victoria Cross]] (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to personnel of the British and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] forces.

==Early life==
Hansen was born into a wealthy and well-connected Danish family that settled first in South Africa then, after 1900, in London.<ref name="Officers of the British Army">{{cite web|url=https://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_H01.html#Hansen_PH|title=British Army officer histories|publisher=Unit Histories|access-date=2022-08-11}}</ref> He was educated at preparatory schools in [[Hazelwood School|Hazelwood]], [[Limpsfield]], Surrey and [[Oxted]], Surrey; then at [[Eton College]] (from 20 September 1904).<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> His father, Viggo Julius Hansen, was naturalised as a British subject in 1910,<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> so that his son could join the British Army.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

==Military career==
After officer training at the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]], Hansen was commissioned into the [[Royal Lincolnshire Regiment|Lincolnshire Regiment]] on 4 March 1911.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28471|date=3 March 1911|page=1637}}</ref>

===First World War===
Hansen was appointed as a temporary [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914, as [[adjutant]] in the 6th (Service) Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment,<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> and his promotion was made permanent in the following April. He fought with his battalion, a recently created [[Kitchener's Army]] unit composed of civilian volunteers, during the [[Gallipoli campaign]] in the summer of 1915. On 9 August 1915 at [[Yilghin Bumu]], Hansen's battalion was forced to withdraw while assaulting [[Battle of Scimitar Hill|Scimitar Hill]]. Hansen and volunteers repeatedly moved back and forth under heavy fire to successfully rescue six wounded men from capture, or death by burning. Hansen was consequently awarded the Victoria Cross.

A month later, Hansen won the [[Military Cross]] for performing a reconnaissance mission at [[Suvla Bay]].<ref>F. G. Spring, 'The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment' (Poacher Books, 2008), 98.</ref> On the night of 9 September 1915, he carried out a solo reconnaissance of the coast, carrying only a revolver and a blanket for disguise. He successfully located an important Turkish firing position.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />

Due to ill-health, Hansen was eventually transferred to France and appointed brigade major to the [[170th (2/1st North Lancashire) Brigade]]. He remained a [[Staff (military)|staff officer]] for the rest of the war, during which he served with the [[II ANZAC Corps|II Anzac Corps]]. He was made a Companion of the [[Distinguished Service Order]] (DSO) for another reconnaissance mission during the [[Battle of Passchendaele]] in 1917.

===Between the wars===
Remaining in the army after the war, Hansen attended the [[Staff College, Camberley]] and, for most of the [[interwar period]], served in numerous staff positions.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> After graduating, he then served as a brigade major with the [[8th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)|8th Infantry Brigade]], part of the [[3rd (United Kingdom) Division|3rd Infantry Division]], then serving in [[Southern Command (United Kingdom)|Southern Command]], before becoming a brigade major with the [[4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)|4th Infantry Division]]'s [[12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team (United Kingdom)|12th Infantry Brigade]]. His next assignment was as a [[Staff (military)|General Staff Officer Grade 2]] (GSO2) to the [[55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division|55th (West Lancashire) Division]], a [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] (TA) formation, and then a GSO2 in [[Jamaica]], before returning to the United Kingdom and being made Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General (DAAG) with [[Western Command (United Kingdom)|Western Command]].<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> He was then posted to the 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, initially as the battalion's [[second-in-command]]. The battalion was serving in [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]], then the scene of an [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt]]. The battalion was in Palestine for five months before it was sent back to England, and in September 1937, Hansen became the [[Commanding Officer]] (CO). He continued to command the battalion until the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in September 1939.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />

===Second World War===
On 2 September 1939, the day before the war began, Hansen was posted to the 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division, a TA formation which he had served with before, and was made Assistant Adjutant-General & Quartermaster-General (AA&QMG). He held this post until late January 1941, when he became Deputy Assistant & Quartermaster-General (DA&QMG) with [[XII Corps (United Kingdom)|XII Corps]], then commanded by [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]] [[Andrew Thorne]]. The corps, which was commanded from late April by Lieutenant General [[Bernard Montgomery]], had responsibility for the defence of [[Kent]] in the event of a [[Operation Sea Lion|German invasion of the United Kingdom]].

Hansen continued in this role until February 1942 when he was made an Area Commander of Belfast Area, prior to becoming a Sub-District Commander, Ashford Area until serving on the staff of [[Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force]] (SHAEF). He remained in this position until the war's end in 1945, and he retired from the army in January 1946.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />

Hansen died on 12 February 1951, at the relatively young age of sixty. He is one of only fourteen men, other than Gurkhas born in Nepal, not born as a British subject to have received the Victoria Cross.<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />

==Awards and decorations==
* [[Victoria Cross]] (1 October 1915) "For most conspicuous bravery on 9th August, 1915, at Yilghin Burnu, Gallipoli Peninsula. After the second capture of the "Green Knoll" his Battalion was forced to retire, leaving some wounded behind, owing to the intense heat from the scrub which had been set on fire. When the retirement was effected Captain Hansen, with three or four volunteers, on his own initiative, dashed forward several times some 300 to 400 yards over open ground into the scrub under a terrific fire, and succeeded in rescuing from inevitable death by burning, no less than six wounded men."<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29312|date=1 October 1915|page=9641}}</ref><ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* [[Distinguished Service Order]] (16 September 1918) "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He volunteered to carry out a reconnaissance, and brought back valuable information obtained under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire, which had been unprocurable from other sources. Throughout he did fine work."<ref name="Officers of the British Army" />
* [[Military Cross]] (29 October 1915) "For conspicuous gallantry at Suvla Bay on 9th September, 1915. He made a reconnaissance of the coast, stripping himself and carrying only a revolver and a blanket for disguise. He swam and scrambled over rocks, which severely cut and bruised him, and obtained some valuable information and located a gun which was causing much damage. The undertaking was hazardous. On one occasion he met a patrol of 12 Turks who did not see him, and later a single Turk whom he lulled. He returned to our lines in a state of great exhaustion."<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29344|supp=y|date=29 October 1915|page=10730}}</ref>
* [[Mentioned in dispatches]] five times
* [[Croix de Guerre]] with Bronze Star (France)
* Officer of the [[Legion of Merit]] (14 November 1947, United States)
* Commander of the [[Royal Order of St Olav]] (Norway)

==Birthplace and place of death controversy==
There is disagreement concerning the places of Hansen's birth and death. Some sources state that he was born in [[Durban]], South Africa; another says "[[Dresden]], Germany (where his parents were taking a cure)".<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> One source gives his place of death as "[[Kensington, London]]", and subsequent burial at [[Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen]],<ref name="Officers of the British Army" /> while another says he died in Copenhagen.

The Danish "folketælling 1895" (census) have him written in the papers when he was 4 years old. His birthplace is "Dresden". His mother "Else Hansen" and his father "Viggo Hansen" were born in Copenhagen. His father had a grocery store. Their house was on "Kongens Nytorv" (matrikel 34). (reference: Folketælling 1895, hovedliste, løbenummer 353, familie nr 98)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last=Snelling|first=Stephen|title=Gallipoli|series=[[VCs of the First World War]]|orig-date=1995|year=2012|publisher=[[The History Press]]|isbn=978-0752456539}}

==External links==
*[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_H01.html#Hansen_PH British Army Officers 1939−1945]
*[http://www.generals.dk/general/Hansen/Percy_Howard/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Percy}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1951 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at the Garrison Cemetery, Copenhagen]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army brigadiers of World War II]]
[[Category:British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:British Gallipoli campaign recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]]
[[Category:British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:Danish military personnel]]
[[Category:Danish recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:Foreign recipients of the Legion of Merit]]
[[Category:People educated at Hazelwood School]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Durban]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers]]
[[Category:German emigrants to the United Kingdom]]