Hugh Robertson attends unveiling of Sir Philip Neame VC’s commemoration stone in Faversham

Hugh Robertson attended the unveiling of Sir Philip Neame’s commemoration stone in Faversham exactly 100 years since he won his Victoria Cross on the Western Front.

Hugh said:
‘Sir Philip was one of the most extraordinary men that this country has ever produced. He is the only person to have won both a Victoria Cross and an Olympic Gold Medal.

‘However, these were not his only achievements. He fought through the whole of both the First and Second World Wars, being awarded a DSO and a CB in addition to his VC, and escaped from captivity as an Italian prisoner of war. He met his wife in hospital whilst recovering from a close encounter with a tiger and walked to the then forbidden city of Lhasa before the outbreak of the Second World War. He finished his career as first Commandant at Sandhurst and, subsequently, Governor General of Guernsey, no easy task in the post war era.
He was a local man so it is fantastic to see this commemorative stone position in his home town so close to the brewery bearing his family name.’