Bot at 17:52, 18 February 2022

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{{short description|Recipient of the Victoria Cross}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=Frank de Pass
|birth_name=Frank Alexander de Pass
|birth_date=26 April 1887
|death_date= 25 November 1914 (aged 27)
|birth_place= [[Kensington]], [[Middlesex]], England
|death_place= [[Festubert]], [[France]]
|placeofburial=Bethune Town Cemetery
|image=VCFrankAlexanderDePass2.jpg
|caption=
|nickname=
|allegiance={{UK}}
|serviceyears=1906–1914{{KIA}}
|rank= [[Lieutenant]]
|branch=[[British Indian Army]]
|commands=
|unit=[[Royal Horse Artillery]]<br/>[[34th Prince Albert Victor's Own Poona Horse]]
|battles= [[World War I]]
|awards= [[Victoria Cross]]
|laterwork=
}}
'''Frank Alexander de Pass''' [[Victoria Cross|VC]] (26 April 1887 – 25 November 1914) was an [[England|English]] recipient of the [[Victoria Cross|Victoria Cross (VC)]], the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to [[United Kingdom|British]] and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] forces. He was the first [[Jew]] to receive the VC, and was the first officer of the [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]] to receive the VC.<ref name="gov.uk">{{cite news |title=First World War hero honoured at Whitehall |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-world-war-hero-honoured-at-whitehall |access-date=18 May 2019 |publisher=gov.uk |date=25 November 2014 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="mylondon">{{cite news |last1=Culbertson |first1=Alix |title=First Jewish Victoria Cross recipient honoured 100 years after being shot dead |url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/first-jewish-victoria-cross-recipient-8176435 |access-date=18 May 2019 |work=Get West London |date=26 November 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Lt A de Pass VC Bethune 2008.jpg|thumb|right|The Grave of LT A De Pass at Bethune CWGC Cemetery France]]
De Pass was born in [[Kensington]] to London merchant Sir [[Eliot de Pass]] and Beatrice de Mercado.<ref>{{cite news |title= Obituary: Sir Eliot De Pass – The West India Committee |work=[[The Times]] |date=12 July 1937 |page= 14 }}</ref> The family's original surname, [[Shalom]], was translated to the Spanish word for peace and became ''Paz'' before being anglicised to Pass when the family first settled in England in the 1660s.<ref name="vc">{{cite book |last1=Field |first1=Peter Old |title=Victoria Crosses on the Western Front August 1914 – April 1915: Mons to Hill 60 |date=2014 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=9781783030439 |page=184 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vpsBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="gov.uk"/>

He attended [[Rugby School]].<ref name=cwgc>[http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/62690 De Pass, Frank Alexander], Commonwealth War Graves Commission</ref> By the age of 27, he had attained the rank of [[Lieutenant]] in the [[34th Prince Albert Victor's Own Poona Horse]].

On 24 November 1914, de Pass entered a German [[Sapping|sap]] near [[Festubert]], [[France]], and destroyed a [[Traverse (trench warfare)|traverse]] in the face of the enemy's bombs. He also rescued, under heavy fire, a wounded man who was lying exposed to enemy bullets in the open. The next day, de Pass was killed in a second attempt to capture the sap, which the enemy had re-occupied. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross on 18 February 1915.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29074|supp=y|page=1700|date=16 February 1916}}</ref> His Victoria Cross is displayed at the [[National Army Museum]] in [[Chelsea, London]].<ref>[http://www.nam.ac.uk/online-collection/detail.php?acc=1995-04-2-2 National Army Museum]</ref>

His sister, Marjorie, married Sir [[Henry Kitson]] and had two sons, including Sir [[Frank Kitson]].<ref name="burke">{{cite book |title= [[Burke's Peerage|Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood]]|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Mosley, Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |page= 2208 |ref=Burke |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}</ref>

In 2014, on the centennial of his death, de Pass was honoured with a memorial paving stone laid outside the [[Ministry of Defence Main Building (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] in [[Whitehall]], London.<ref name="mylondon"/> The ceremony was attended by his nephew, Col. Jonny Kitson, his great nephew Thomas Kitson and Sgt. [[Johnson Beharry]] [[Victoria Cross|VC]], the first living recipient of the Victoria Cross in more than three decades.<ref name="gov.uk"/>

==See also==
*[[Darwan Singh Negi]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100820033615/http://national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/vc/page4-2.shtml National Army Museum]

==Publications==
*''[[Monuments to Courage]]'' (David Harvey, 1999)
*''[[The Register of the Victoria Cross]]'' (This England, 1997)
*''[[VCs of the First World War]]'' (Gerald Gliddon, 1994)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Depass, Frank Alexander}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1914 deaths]]
[[Category:English people of Spanish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:British military personnel killed in World War I]]
[[Category:People from Kensington]]
[[Category:English Jews]]
[[Category:People educated at Rugby School]]
[[Category:Indian Army personnel killed in World War I]]
[[Category:Jewish military personnel]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Middlesex]]

Frank de Pass - Revision history

Bot at 17:52, 18 February 2022