| Cyril Hubert Frisby | |
| Birth Date: | 17 September 1885 |
| Death Date: | 10 September 1961 (aged 75) |
| Birth Place: | New Barnet, Hertfordshire |
| Death Place: | Guildford, Surrey |
| Placeofburial: | Brookwood Cemetery |
| Rank: | Captain |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Unit: | Hampshire Regiment Coldstream Guards |
| Battles: | World War I |
| Awards: | Victoria Cross |
| Laterwork: | Sport fisherman |
Cyril Frisby VC (17 September 1885 - 10 September 1961) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Awarded the VC for his actions in the Battle of Canal du Nord during the First World War, in later life he was a prominent sports fisherman.
Cyril Hubert Frisby was born on 17 September 1885 at New Barnet, Hertfordshire, the second son of Henry and Zoe Frisby. He was educated at Haileybury College. He became a member of the London Stock Exchange in 1911.[1] The same year he married Audrey Ogilvie-Grant in London; the couple had a son, born two years later.
Frisby joined the Hampshire Regiment as a private in October 1916 and within weeks was undergoing officer training. He was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards in March 1917 as a second lieutenant. He was posted to the Western Front in November, where he joined the regiment's 1st Battalion. Early the following year, he was promoted to acting captain.
On 27 September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive, the Coldstream Guards was engaged in the Battle of Canal du Nord, near Graincourt. His battalion was tasked with the capture of a canal crossing, with Frisby himself in command of one of the attacking companies. Once over the canal, he was to set up defensive positions and make contact with the adjacent 3rd Guards Battalion. On reaching the canal, barbed wire, together with heavy fire from a German machine-gun post under the bridge on the far side of the canal halted the advance. Frisby, together with a lance-corporal, Thomas Jackson, and two others, got through the wire and climbed down into the canal under intense fire. With a further twelve men joining him, he led the capture of the post. Despite a leg wound, he then attended forming a defensive line as per his instructions. While doing so, he had led an adjacent leaderless company in fighting off a counter-attack.
For his actions, Frisby was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), one of seven that were awarded for actions performed on 27 September. The citation for his VC read:
After the battle, the 1st Battalion was withdrawn to Boursies. Jackson, the lance corporal who had initially assisted Frisby that day, was later killed and posthumously awarded the VC. When Frisby was presented with his medal by King George V, in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 29 March 1919, Jackson's family was also there to receive his medal. Frisby was able to explain to them the circumstances of their relative's VC award. Frisby's brother Lionel also served in the First World War with the 6th Welsh Regiment as an acting lieutenant colonel; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
After the war Frisby spent much of his time tuna fishing, becoming prominent in the sport and competing in international fishing competitions. In the 1930s, fishing off the coast of Scarborough, he caught a 659lb specimen.[2] He also set a world record of 1.25 tons, for the greatest weight of fish caught in a day by an angler, (The End of the Line (book), page 52). Also active in the British Legion, he became president of the Stoughton and Westborough branch in 1940, having previously served as its vice-president.
Frisby died on 10 September 1961 at his home in Guildford aged 75; his wife had predeceased him by almost a year. He and his wife are buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey. His son later donated Frisby's medals, which in addition to the VC included the British War Medal, the Victory Medal with Oak Leaf, the Defence Medal 1939–45, and Coronation Medals for 1937 and 1953, to the Coldstream Guards Museum, where they are on display at the regimental headquarters at Wellington Barracks in London.