Frederick George Topham, VC (10 August 1917 – 31 May 1974) was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life and Second World War Born in York Township, Toronto, Canada, on August 10, 1917, Topham was educated here at King George Public School and Runnymede High School (now Runnymede Collegiate Institute) before working in the mines at Kirkland Lake. Topham enlisted in the Canadian Army during the Second World War on August 3, 1942, and served at home and abroad as a medical orderly, initially with the 48th Highlanders of Canada, before transferring to the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC). However, he volunteered for service with the Canadian Army's airborne forces and found himself in the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, with whom he was to remain for the rest of the war. He trained in Canada with the battalion which, in the summer of 1943, was sent to England where it became part of Brigadier James Hill's 3rd Parachute Brigade of the British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major General Richard Gale. The division had been earmarked for an assault role for the upcoming invasion of Normandy, then scheduled for the spring of 1944, and highly intensive training continued with an ever heightening intensity. In the early hours of June 6, 1944 (now known as D-Day) Topham's battalion dropped into Normandy (see Operation Tonga) as part of Operation Overlord and, after being engaged in heavy fighting, during which time the battalion sustained heavy losses, spent the next two months on the defensive (contrary to what the airborne troops had been trained for) before pursuing the retreat German forces to the River Seine (see 6th Airborne Division advance to the River Seine). In September, after almost three months of fighting, the division was withdrawn to England. In December the division, now commanded by Major General Eric Bols, was sent to Belgium where it played a relatively minor role in the Battle of the Bulge. Topham's battalion gained the distinction of being the only Canadian Army units to fight in the battle. During Operation Varsity, the Western Allies' attempt to cross the River Rhine, on March 24, 1945, while serving with the battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Nicklin, he defied heavy enemy fire to treat casualties sustained in a