Nigel Farage pays touching tribute to Walton war hero’s ‘epic Victoria Cross story’

Columbine, who was just 24 at the time and lost his father in the Second Boer War, was looking to hold off wave after wave of German attacks to ensure fellow members of the Machine Gun Corps could retreat.

Battling it out in Hervilly Wood, Columbine was firing a Vickers Gun from 9am to 1pm on March 22, 1918.

Columbine's heroics, as detailed by Farage, helped two of his comrades survive the onslaught.

Farage told GB News: “He volunteered for World War One. He was defending a position against the great German advance, ‘Kaiser Bill’s Offensive’ as we called it, in March 1918, and this was after Russia had been knocked out of the war.

“Two million troops came to the Western Front, and, frankly, nearly beat us at the war. Columbine's position was, as with some others, to hold the Germans off as long as they possibly could to allow the rest of the army to retreat.

“And so Columbine was put in a horrendous position, really. Anyway, they were being attacked on all sides, surrounded by goodness knows what. And Columbine famously says to the rest of the machine gun crew, ‘off you go, lads, I can handle this’ and stays on his own firing.

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“In the end, the Germans become so frustrated with him that they actually use an airplane to take him out. They bomb him from the air and that kills him, that takes him out, and he gets the posthumous Victoria Cross. So it's a pretty epic story.”

Private Columbine, who was born in Penge before moving to the Essex seaside town at the age of 12, enlisted in the army just five years later in 1910.

He survived a number of major First World War battles, including Mons and Ypres.

Following his death at Hervilly Wood, Columbine’s mother Emma was handed his Victoria Cross from King George V

She refused to accept his army pension as residents in Walton-on-the-Naze raised £312 9s 2d that would later be exchanged for war bonds.

In an April 1918 edition of the London Gazette, Columbine was described as displaying “conspicuous bravery”.

The London Gazette added: “He showed throughout the highest valour, determination and self-sacrifice.”

Private Columbine’s Victoria Cross was given to Walton Town Hall in 1921 and later went on display at the Chelmsford-based Essex Regiment Museum in 2013.

Speaking about the statue erected for Columbine in 2014, Farage said: “It is an absolutely magnificent statue in a very dominant position on the seafront, with a pier very close by, with sort of Victorian buildings behind.

“It is a magnificent position and it's him with the machine gun beside him. There are two very significant things about the Columbine statue.

“The first is that the money for the statue was raised locally. The second and this is the most significant thing. This is the first ever statue in the history of our country to be put up to a private soldier. So, yes, it's a pretty big deal.”

The Columbine Statue fund was set up under the patronage of Dame Judi Dench to raise money to mark the Walton war hero’s sacrifice.

The John Doubleday sculpted statue, which Farage was pictured beside ahead of the 2014 Clacton by-election, was erected on August 1 in the same year.