Cyril Frisby

Captain Cyril Hubert Frisby VC (17 September 1885 – 10 September 1961) was an English Stockbroker and 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.

Frisby was born on 17 September 1885 at New Barnet, Hertfordshire, he was educated at Haileybury. He became a member of the London Stock Exchange in 1911. Frisby joined the Hampshire Regiment as a Private in 1916 and was later commissioned in Coldstream Guards in March 1917.

Frisby was 33 years old, and an acting captain in the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 27 September 1918 at the Battle of Canal du Nord, near Graincourt, France, Captain Frisby was in command of a company detailed to capture a canal crossing, but when the canal was reached, the leading platoon came under annihilating fire from a strong enemy post under the bridge on the far side of the canal. Captain Frisby with a lance-corporal (Thomas Norman Jackson) and two others, climbed down into the canal under intense fire and succeeded in capturing the post with two machine-guns and 12 men. Then having consolidated his objective he gave timely support to a company which had lost all its officers and sergeants, organising the defences and beating off a heavy counter-attack.

After the war he spent much of his time tuna fishing. He has been described as Britain's most famous tuna fisherman and on one day in the 1930s caught five tuna, including a 659 pounds (299 kg) specimen. Frisby's participation in the Wedgeport International Tuna Tournament is described by Max Ferguson in his memoir And Now... Here's Max.

Frisby had married Audrey Grant in 1911 and they had one son. His wife died in 1960 and Firsby died on 10 September 1961 aged 75.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Coldstream Guards Regimental Headquarters, Wellington Barracks, London.