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Matthew Croucher

This was always likely, wasn\’t it?

L/Cpl Matthew Croucher will become part of a select of group of just 20 living George Cross holders when the Queen awards him the medal, which is given for acts showing the same level of heroism as the Victoria Cross.

The Marine had less than seven seconds to make up his mind on whether to risk sacrificing his own life to save his friends when the hand grenade rolled onto the ground during an operation in Afghanistan earlier this year.

Without hesitating he chose to chance death and save his three fellow Royal Marines.

9 thoughts on “Matthew Croucher”

  1. We train our servicemen to such high standards s0 that their reactions to incidents like this become instinctive.

    And yes they do practice someone dropping a live grenade – or at least did when I was serving.

  2. Its a shame there,s not a more like Mattew Croucher in civvy st. Bloody well done mate. You and your comrades in the British armed forces are worth your wieght in gold. People like you make me proud to be British.

  3. Seven seconds is actually plenty of time in which to grab the grenade and throw it out of harm’s way. Of course, the grenade doesn’t come with an announcement of how much time’s left.

    I don’t remember my own grenade training very clearly–there wasn’t that much. But I seem to recall being supposed to wait some seconds before tossing it–to reduce the chance of its being tossed out (or back).

  4. Just read the story–not quite what I’d expected.
    The guy’s not only brave but has extraordinary
    presence of mind. The other guy oughta want pieces of his backpack to remind them how lucky THEY were to be seving alongside someone with those characteristics.

  5. Stout fellow. Brings a moistening to the eyes and hopefully he”l never have to buy a round for the rest of his life.

  6. Monty. I’m puzzled too. It’s a fine distinction that somebody drew that he was not actually “in face of the enemy” is it not?

    If I recall rightly, various WW2 bomber crew were awarded the VC for heroism thousands of feet above (and when the plane was being nursed home, many miles from) the enemy.

  7. I agree, 7 seconds is an eternity. This was a deliberate calculated act.

    As to the VC/GC arguement, it does seem like pedantry, I would have thought that an enemy booby trap was line of fire. But the precedent I guess is army bomb disposal who generally recieve GCs rather than VCs.

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