Remembering Victoria Cross Recipients with Ron Howard and Adam Pearce

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Adam Pearce and his uncle Ron Howard have spent the past few years visiting the graves of the UK's and British Commonwealth's Victoria Cross recipients. They hope to raise awareness of not just the recipients of the British Army's highest award for valor, but of the other men buried with them in Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries on the Old Front Line and elsewhere around the world.

Also, to British listeners in general and Nottinghamshire residents in particular, my apologies on butchering the pronunciation of Nottinghamshire. (Throws palm over face.) I knew better too, but brain-dumped in the moment.

Links to some topics brought up in the conversation:

Chelsea Pensioners: https://chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/

Covenant With Death, by John Harris: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/covenant-with-death_john--harris/566512/#isbn=0751557129

Victoria Cross headstone photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VCstone.jpg

The BFWWP is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BattlesoftheFirstWorldWarPodcast.

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on BlueSky at @WW1podcast.bsky.social:

https://bsky.app/profile/ww1podcast.bsky.social

and the BFWWP website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Email me directly at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Please review the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes! :)

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The The
0:23.6	The Hey folks, welcome to the Battles of the First World War podcast.
0:53.3	Joining me today are Ron Howard and his nephew, Adam Pierce.
0:58.0	Ron is a lecturer at the University of Britain in Bahrain.
1:02.0	Adam is based out of Nottinghamshire, which I probably just
1:06.0	butchered that and I apologize.
1:08.0	Both men hail from Sheffield, from which the Sheffield pals were raised during the First World War.
1:14.6	Ron and Adam have traveled the Western Front in recent years as part of a very interesting project, which they've come on the show to talk about today.
1:22.6	Adam has even traveled further out than the Western Front, and I'm sure we'll get into that as well.
1:28.5	So Ron, Adam, thank you both for reaching out and coming on the podcast,
1:32.5	and if you can, please tell me how do we say Nottinghamshire.
1:36.3	Nottinghamshire.
1:37.5	Nottinghamshire. I'm so sorry.
1:39.6	No, it's fine. It's not too bad. Not too bad at all.
1:43.0	But thank you very much anyway for the invite. Really, really pleased to be here, really excited. As I've mentioned to you before, I've been listening to you since they've done podcasts. Thank you. Thank you. So, gentlemen, I think we'll just dive right into the first question. And Ron, if you would start us off.
2:02.3	So would you tell us a bit more about yourselves, as well as what it was like growing up in Sheffield?
2:10.1	Like, is the memory of the Sheffield Pals still a palpable thing even today?
2:16.7	Yes, thank you very much for inviting me on the show.
2:19.6	I'm really honored.
2:21.0	As with Adam, I'm a long-time listener.
2:23.8	I think I go back prior to the Bay done one,
	...

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