As part of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s events to mark the Centenary of the First World War, all recipients of the Victoria Cross awarded between 1914 and 1918 will have a memorial stone unveiled in their honour in the borough they lived in. Private Cruikshank’s paving stone is the third of four to be laid in Haringey. The final recipient’s paving stone will be laid later this year.
Robert Cruikshank was born in Winnipeg, Canada, moved to Haringey when he was three years old and in 1915 he enlisted in the London Scottish Regiment. In May, 1918, east of the River Jordan, during a battle against Turkish troops, Private Cruikshank volunteered to take a message to company headquarters asking for support, after his officer and rest of the troops had been killed or injured.