- Cher Ami
Cher Ami (French for "Dear Friend" (male form)) was a famous homing pigeon who was owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I. He helped save the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division in the battle of the Argonne, October 1918. In his last mission, he delivered a message despite having been shot through the breast. The bird was awarded the Croix de Guerre, for heroic service delivering 12 important messages in Verdun. - John Howard
John Howard (April 14 1913 - February 19 1995) was an American actor. Born John R. Cox, Jr. in Cleveland, Ohio, he was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of what is now Case Western Reserve University. At college he discovered a love for the theater, and took part in student productions. The goodlooking and personable young Howard soon became a contract player for Paramount, … - Violette Szabo
Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell Szabo, G.C., M.B.E., CdG (June 26, 1921 - c.February 5, 1945) was a World War II secret agent. Her wartime activities in Occupied France were dramatised in the film "Carve Her Name with Pride", based on the book of the same name by R.J. Minney. During her time in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) she met Leo Marks, who gave her what is now thought of as the definitive World War II code-poem "The Life That I Have". - Eugene Bullard
Eugene Bullard (9 October, 1894 - 12 October, 1961) was the first African-American military pilot. He was born Eugene Jacques Bullard in Columbus, Georgia, in the United States. His father was known as "Big Chief Ox" and his mother was a Creek Indian; together, they had ten children. Bullard stowed away on a ship bound for Scotland to escape racial discrimination (he later claimed to have had witnessed his father's narrow escape from lynching as a child). - Douglas Bader
Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, CBE, DSO and Bar, DFC and Bar, FRAeS, DL, RAF (21 February 1910-5 September 1982); surname pronounced) was a successful fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Bader is upheld as an inspirational leader and hero of the era, not least because he fought despite having lost both legs in a pre-war flying accident. - Pierre Boulle
Pierre Boulle was a French novelist largely known for his combination of psychology and adventure, most famously in "The Bridge over the River Kwai" (1952) and "Planet of the Apes" (1963). - Kiffin Rockwell
Kiffin Rockwell was an early aviator whose major claim to fame is as the first American to shoot down an enemy aircraft. On May 18 1916, Rockwell attacked and shot down a German aircraft over the Alsace battlefield. For this action he was awarded the Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre. - Krystyna Skarbek
Krystyna Skarbek, G.M., O.B.E., Croix de guerre (1 May, 1915 - 15 June, 1952) was a Polish-born World War II British SOE agent also known by the "nom de guerre", Christine Granville. She became celebrated especially for her exploits in Nazi-occupied Poland and France. She was the longest-serving of all SOE's women agents. - Raymond Collishaw
Air Vice-Marshal Raymond Collishaw CBE DSO and Bar DSC DFC Croix de Guerre RAF (22 November 1893 - 28 September 1976) was a Canadian aviator who served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and later the Royal Air Force. He was the highest scoring RNAS flying ace and the second highest scoring Canadian pilot of the First World War. As a member of the RAF during the Second World War, he commanded the Desert Air Force in North Africa. - Henry Lincoln Johnson
Henry Lincoln Johnson (1897 - July 5 1929) was an American soldier, and recipient of the Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross and French Croix de Guerre. Johnson was born in the South and moved to Albany, New York when he was in his early teens. He worked as a redcap porter at the Albany Union Station on Broadway. Johnson enlisted in the Army June 5, 1917, joining the all-black New York National Guard unit, the 369th Infantry Regiment, based in Harlem. - James McCudden
Major James Thomas Byford McCudden VC, DSO and Bar, MC and Bar, MM, Croix de Guerre (28 March, 1895-9 July, 1918) was an English 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. McCudden was the most highly decorated British Empire pilot of the First World War and one of the longest serving, having joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1913. - Hobey Baker
Hobart Amory Hare Baker (January 15, 1892 - December 21, 1918), known as Hobey Baker, was a noted sportsman and fighter pilot of the early 20th century. Baker was born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He attended St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire where Malcom Gordon was coach of the ice hockey team, graduating in 1909. In 1910 he enrolled in Princeton University as a member of the class of 1914. - Susan Travers
Susan Travers (September 23, 1909 - December 18, 2003) was a British citizen and daughter of a Royal Navy admiral who, during World War II, was informally part of the French Foreign Legion and became the chauffeur for Free French General Pierre Koenig. Prior to the war, she was a semi-pro tennis player. For her actions in the Battle of Bir Hakeim (1942), Travers was awarded the Croix de Guerre. - André Bettencourt
André Bettencourt is a French politician. He has been awarded the Croix de Guerre, and is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He served as a cabinet minister under Pierre Mendès-France and Charles de Gaulle, and was awarded for his bravery in the Resistance against the Nazis. - James Marshall
James Marshall, VC, MC and bar, Croix de Guerre (Belgium), Chevalier of the Order of Leopold (Belgium) (12 June 1887- November 4 1918), was an English 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. He was 31 years old, and an acting Lieutenant Colonel in the Irish Guards, British Army, attached to the Lancashire Fusiliers, … - Louis Bromfield
Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 - March 18, 1956) is one of Mansfield, Ohio's most famous natives, a man who became internationally renowned both as a Pulitzer Prize winning author and as an innovative conservationist and scientific farmer. He was a friend with some of the most celebrated personalities of his era. Malabar Farm near Lucas, Ohio south of Mansfield, was Bromfield's home from 1939 until his death in 1956. - Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne CH MC FRS PC (15 April, 1883-25 August, 1967), Australian politician and diplomat, was the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was born in Melbourne, where his father was a prominent businessman of Scottish descent. He was educated at Glamorgan (now part of Geelong Grammar School), Melbourne Grammar School, and then at Cambridge University. - Georges Madon
Georges Felix Madon (July 28 1892 in Bizerte, Tunisia - November 11 1924 in Tunis) was a French ace pilot of the First World War. A prewar pilot, Madon's experience was valued but he spent most of 1915 interned in Switzerland owing to a navigation error. He escaped, however, and between September 1916 and September 1918 he was credited with 41 confirmed victories, ranking him fifth among all French pilots. At war's end he commanded his squadron, Escadrille SPA.38. - Sumner Sewall
Sumner Sewall (June 17, 1897 - January 25, 1965) was a U.S. Republican politician and airline executive who served as the Governor of Maine from 1941 to 1945. A native of Bath, Maine, Sewall dropped out of Harvard College in 1917 to go to Europe to aid the Allies during World War I. Sewall served first in the American Ambulance Field Service, then in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, then finally as a fighter pilot. - Avery Cardinal Dulles
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. (born August 24, 1918) is currently the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University, a position he has held since 1988. He is an internationally known author and lecturer. He was born in Auburn, New York, the son of future U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (for whom Dulles Airport is named) and Janet Pomeroy Avery Dulles. His uncle was Director of Central Intelligence Allen Welsh Dulles. - Guy D'Artois
Major Lionel Guy d'Artois, Croix de Guerre (born 1917) was a Canadian Army officer and SOE agent. d'Artois was born in Richmond, Quebec in 1917. He was a student at the Universite de Montreal. He joined the First Special Service Force during World War II. In 1943 he volunteered for SOE. He served in F section until 1945. Codename Dieudonne. He parachuted into Saone and Loire, France one month before D-Day. - F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas
Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas, G.C., MC & Bar, "Croix de Guerre" (with palms), Insignia of the Commandeur of the Légion d'Honneur, (June 17 1901 - February 26 1964) was the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent codenamed "The White Rabbit" during World War II. His particular sphere of operations was Occupied and Vichy France. - Robert Rosenthal
Lieutenant Colonel Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal (June 111917 - April 20 2007) was a highly-decorated pilot in the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, … - Gordon Campbell
Vice-Admiral Gordon Campbell VC, DSO & 2 Bars, Croix de guerre avec Palmes, Legion d'Honneur (January 6, 1886 - July 3, 1953) was an English 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. Educated at Dulwich College (between 1898 and 1900), he later became a senior officer and politician. - Floyd Gibbons
Floyd Phillips Gibbons (born 1887, Washington, D.C.; died September 1939, Pennsylvania) was the war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune during World War I. Gibbons started with the Tribune in 1907. He became well-known for covering the Pancho Villa Expedition in 1916, and for reporting on the 1917 torpedoing of the British ship Laconia, on which he was a passenger. As a World War I correspondent at the Battle of Belleau Wood, France, … - Horace McCoy
Horace McCoy was an American writer, whose hard-boiled novels took place during the Great Depression. His best-known novel is "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" (1935), which was made into a movie of the same name in 1969, fourteen years after McCoy's death. McCoy was born in Pegram, Tennessee. During World War I McCoy served in the United States Army Air Corps. He flew several missions behind enemy lines as a bombardier and reconnaissance photographer. - Roland Beamont
Wing Commander Roland Prosper "Bee" Beamont, CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, DFC (US), Croix de Guerre (Belgium), FRAeS, SETP (Hon. Fell.), (born August 10, 1920 in Chichester, Sussex, died November 19 2001) was a British fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Flying Hawker Tempests while stationed at Newchurch, Kent, he scored notable successes against the German pilotless V-1 flying bomb. - Richard O'Connor
Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor, KT, GCB, DSO, MC, ADC (21 August 1889 - 17 June 1981) was a British Army general who commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of World War II. He was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which his forces completely destroyed a much larger Italian army - a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa entirely, and in turn, … - Herman Davis
Born in Manila, Arkansas, Herman Davis was an United States infantry private and sniper during World War I. He first achieved distinction by killing four German machine gunners, and thereby saving an entire American company. Later, he killed 47 enemy gunners in a single encounter, using sniping tactics he had learned hunting small game at home. General Pershing named him fourth among the 100 greatest heroes of the war. - George Reginald Starr
George Reginald Starr, was one of two sons of Alfred Demarest Starr (an American) and Ethel Renshaw (English). He was a grandson of William Robert Renshaw. He was educated at Ardingly College in Sussex, and at the age of 16 undertook a seven-year apprenticeship as a coal-miner in Shropshire. After studying mining engineering at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London he joined the Glasgow firm of Mavor and Coulson Ltd, manufacturers of mining equipment. - Michel Coiffard
Michel Joseph Callixte Marie Coiffard (1892-1918) was among the most notable French fighter pilots of the First World War. A decorated prewar infantryman, he was serving in an artillery unit when the war began in 1914. Repeatedly wounded and cited for courage under fire, Coiffard transferred to the infantry and finally was declared unfit for ground combat. Consequently, he joined the air service. - George Millar
George Millar, DSO, MC, born September 19, 1910; died January 15, 2005. Millar was an Englishman who was parachuted into the Besançon area of France by the SOE in 1944. After the war, he wrote a book, "Maquis" (1945), about his experiences with the French Resistance. He describes life living in the woods with the Maquis, various sabotage missions against the railway and trying to organise the villages before liberation by the Americans. - Philip Neame
Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Neame, VC, KBE, CB, DSO, Chevalier Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre (France), Croix de Guerre (Belgium) (12 December 1888 - 28 April 1978) was an English 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. He was also the winner of an Olympic Gold medal, making him the only person to win both this and the Victoria Cross. - Prince Aage
Prince Aage of Denmark was a Danish prince and officer of the French Foreign Legion. He was son of Prince Valdemar and Princess Marie of Orléans. In 1909 Prince Aage joined the Danish Army, and in 1913 he became Lieutenant. During World War I he served as an observer in Italy for a year. Returning home to Denmark he received the rank of Captain. In 1922 he got permission from the Danish King to leave the Danish Army in order to join the French Foreign Legion. - Basil Brooke 1st Viscount Brookeborough
Basil Stanlake Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough, Bt, KG, CBE, MC, PC (June 9 1888 - August 18 1973) was a British Ulster Unionist politician. He held several ministerial positions in the Government of Northern Ireland. He became the third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1943 and held office until 1963. Basil Stanlake Brooke was born on June 9 1888 in Colebrooke, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, the eldest son of Sir Arthur Douglas Brooke, 4th Baronet, … - Stewart Alsop
Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop (May 17, 1914 - May 26, 1974) was an American newspaper columnist and political analyst. Born and raised in Avon, Connecticut, Alsop attended Groton School and Yale University. After graduating from Yale in 1936, Alsop moved to New York City, where he worked as an editor for the publishing house of Doubleday, Doran. After the United States entered World War II, Alsop joined the British Army, … - Seymour Hicks
Seymour Hicks (30 January 1871-6 April 1949) was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss in 1893. Hicks was the first British actor to perform in France during both World War I and World War II, and received the Croix de Guerre twice for his services. Hicks was knighted in 1935. - Art Acord
Artemus Ward Acord (April 17, 1890 - January 4, 1931) was an American silent film actor and rodeo champion. Born to Mormon parents in Prattsville, Utah, Acord as a young man worked as a cowboy and ranch hand. He went on to become one of the first true cowboys of Western films. He was sometimes called the Mormon Cowboy. A celebrated rodeo champion, Acord not only acted but also wrote scripts and performed as a stuntman. - John Davis Lodge
John Davis Lodge was a Republican, was governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955. He was also an actor and U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland. - Albert Hill
Albert Hill VC (1895-1971) was a British soldier who won the Victoria Cross, the highest British military decoration. He was also a holder of the French Croix de Guerre, the Russian Cross of St. George, and three campaign medals. Born in Hulme, Manchester, one of ten children, he was a weak and frail child who after his schooling started work in a mill, before becoming an apprentice planker at Wilson Hat Manufacturers, in Wilton Street, Denton (Manchester).
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