Image © The Royal Logistic Corps Museum

This December 4th we remember the heroic actions of Private John Tancred, 187 Company Pioneer Corps, on this night 82 years ago.

During the Second World War, soldiers of the Pioneer Corps carried out a wide variety of tasks across the world, serving wherever the British Army served. One of these tasks was bearing stretchers, often in difficult and hard to reach locations.

This silver statue was presented to the Royal Pioneer Corps Central Officers’ Mess by past and present officers of the Royal Pioneer Corps Army Emergency Reserve in 1967 to commemorate the actions of Private John Tancred, 187 Company Pioneer Corps who was tasked with stretcher bearing duties at Monte Camino.

Tancred’s Company was ordered to act as stretcher bearers by the 56th Division and were attached to 140 Main Dressing Station. The Company went forward with 5 Light Field Ambulance, and 167 and 214 Advance Dressing Stations, being split into 3 parties with 3 sections to each Royal Army Medical Corps unit.

During the night of the 4th December, Tancred set off down Monastery Hill carrying a wounded officer on his back in bitterly cold conditions with the mountain passes made even more treacherous by continuous rain. Sixteen hours later he arrived at an Advanced Dressing Station handing over the officer to men of the RAMC, before Tancred himself collapsed and died.

Tancred was 42 years of age and received no award for his actions, but this statue commemorates the heroism he and thousands of Pioneers displayed during the Second World War. In recognition of their work in the conflict, the Pioneer Corps gained the distinction ‘Royal’ in 1946 to become the Royal Pioneer Corps.