George Cross Recipient. A Congregational Church minister, he received the award posthumously (presented to his widow and son) from British King George VI at Buckingham Palace in 1947 for his actions as a chaplain with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) Volunteer Reserve, Chaplain Branch. Born in South Africa, he served as a medical orderly with the South African Field Ambulance in France during World War I. After the war, he went to England and studied at Mansfield College, Oxfora form 1920 until 1924 and received his ordination. He was the minister at Camberley Congregational Church from 1924 until 1927 and then at Christ Church, Friern Barnet, Middlesex, from 1927 until 1939. After World War II broke out in September 1939, he became an British RAF chaplain, with the rank of squadron leader. He served at RAF Bridgnorth in Shropshire until 1941, when he was then posted to Takoradi, British Gold Coast, and sailed on the British troop ship HMT Anseim to Freetown, Sierra Leone. On that day, while enroute, the ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-96, severely crippling the ship. He, remained aboard, tending the wounded and helping to launchthe lifeboats and rafts. The ship sank 22 minutes after being torpedoed and he was never seen again, nor was his body recovered. His George Cross citation reads: "The Reverend H. C. Pugh, after seeing service in this country, was posted to Takoradi and embarked on H.M.T. Anseim, carrying over 1,300 passengers; for West Africa at the end of June, 1941. She was torpedoed in the Atlantic in the early hours of the 5 July 1941. One torpedo hit a hold on Deck C, destroying the normal means of escape. Mr. Pugh came up on deck in a dressing gown and gave all the help he could. He seemed to be everywhere at once, doing his best to comfort the injured, helping with the boats and rafts (two of these were rendered unserviceable as a result of the explosion) and visiting the different lower sections where men were quartered. When he learned that a number of injured airmen were trapped in the damaged hold, he insisted on being lowered into it with a rope. Everyone demurred because the hold was below the water line and already the decks were awash and to go down was to go to certain death. He simply explained that he must be where his men were. The deck level was already caving in and the hold was three parts full of water so that, when he knelt to pray, the water reached his shoulders. Within a few minutes the ship plunged and sank and Mr. Pugh was never seen again. He had every opportunity of saving his own life but, without regard for his own safety and in the best tradition of the Service and of a Christian minister, he gave up his life for others."