Finchale celebrates Disabled Veterans through commemorating a VC hero.
On 14 May 2010 Finchale commemorated the achievements of Capt Richard Annand, VC, by naming the main College building after him. Richard Annand, VC, House was officially opened by Lt Gen Robin Brims, CB, CBE, DSO.
Capt Annand won the first VC of the Second World War on 15 June 1940
He was a platoon commander with 2nd Battalion The Durham Light Infantry in the 2nd Division sent to man positions on the Dyle, near the village of La Tombe. The ground on the west bank could hardly have been less suitable; trees and undergrowth made observation of the approaches to the opposite bank difficult and, to the rear, open ground rose steeply to the village. Capt Annand was with D Company covering the road bridge over the Dyle, across which another company of the Durhams had been forced to withdraw before the advancing German Army on the afternoon of May 14, when the bridge was blown.
At 11.00 the next day the enemy launched a violent attack to cover the move of a bridging party into the sunken riverbed. Capt Annand led a group of men from his platoon in a counterattack and, when their small-arms ammunition was exhausted, went forward alone to throw grenades from the edge of the ruined bridge on to the enemy bridging party working below, inflicting some 20 casualties. The enemy was thus prevented from crossing the river in continued fighting, but the situation remained grave, and the company commander had been badly wounded. During the evening of the same day, the enemy launched another attack under cover of intense mortar and machinegun fire. Capt Annand again went forward armed with all the grenades he could carry and attacked the German troops attempting to repair the bridge.
But elsewhere the Allied line had broken and at 23.00 the Durhams’ commanding officer gave the order to withdraw as part of the general move back to the line of the River Scheldt. As Capt Annand led the survivors of his platoon away from the bridge in the early hours of May 16, he discovered that his batman, Private Joseph Hunter, from Sunderland, had been wounded in the head and legs and was unable to walk
Despite his own wounds sustained in the day’s fighting, he found a wheelbarrow, lifted Hunter into it and wheeled him to the rear until their way was barred by a fallen tree. Leaving Hunter in an empty trench he set out to find help but collapsed from exhaustion and loss of blood shortly after finding his company HQ position abandoned.
Hunter was captured by the advancing Germans and sent to a Dutch hospital, but he died of his wounds a month later.
On return to Britain and a period of recuperation from his wounds Capt Annand undertook a period training recruits before he joined Finchale Training College as the College’s Personnel Officer and remained in that capacity at the College for 25 years. In fact the College was established in 1943 as a rehabilitation centre for disabled veterans and was managed until 1995 by retired officers from the Armed Forces.
Today, Finchale has a continuous recruitment of disabled veterans who make up, on average, 20% of the College’s annual complement of over 200 trainees. Links with support organisations for veterans are also strong.
Disabilities experienced by our ex-Services trainees include physical and health problems, with particular emphasis on mental health needs. Many trainees also have additional barriers to employment such as debt and housing difficulties, a history of drug and alcohol abuse and/or inappropriate qualifications for their chosen professions, as well as particular barriers specific to the individual.
The College motto, exemplified by the Phoenix, is ‘Triumph Over Adversity’. We are keen to respond to the needs of disabled veterans and we hope to build on our existing partnership with the Services to expand our mission.
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