John Manson Craig was born on 5 March 1896 to a family residing at Innergeldie in Glen Lednock, northwest of Comrie. After attending Morrisons Academy, an independent school in Crieff (est. 1850), he went up to Cambridge to study science. After graduating, Craig joined the Cameron Highlanders (6 April 1915) and went on to take part in September/October of that year in the Battle of Loos (France). In the summer of 1917, Craig, by then a lieutenant in the 1/5th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers took part in the Second Battle of Gaza (Palestine) in which he won a VC on 5 June 1917 for bravery under fire – an action which involved Craig in the recovery of dead and wounded comrades and led to his own wounding.
John Manson Craig had already proven his bravery on 3 separate occasions including being wounded in May 1917 (he had only just returned to the battalion after recovering from this wounding when he won the VC), and had survived the torpedoing of the troop ship, the SS Invernia, which had carried him and the battalion out to Alexandria.
As the Great War moved to a close, Craig enrolled in the RFC, (Royal Flying Corp) and it is likely that he underwent flying training at El Rimal (later named RAF El Amiriya) with No. 19 Training Depot Station (TDS) and was possibly an instructor at Heliopolis (Crete) with No. 5 Fighter Training School.
During the Second World War, Craig re-enlisted in the RAF, and was assigned as Deputy Assistant Provost Marshal, RAF Police, based in Dundee. Craig’s wartime duties included acting as escort to Vyacheslav Molotov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union during the latter’s visit to Britain in May 1942 (see RAF Tealing).
By the end of the war, Craig had the rank of wing commander and had added several medals to sit alongside his VC including:
1914-15 Star, British War Medal (1914-20), Victory Medal (1914-19), King George VI Coronation Medal (1937), Defence Medal (1939-45), and the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal (1953).
John Manson Craig VC died on 19 February 1970 at Crieff Cottage Hospital. He was cremated at Perth Crematorium and his ashes are interred in his family vault at Comrie Cemetery.
