wounded officer. They managed to get the wounded officer onto a camel, but then he was wounded again and died immediately. The two captains won the VC for their actions. However, Gough played down his own part in the event. It was not until late in the year that the true story came out indicating that Gough was equally deserving of recognition. He was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross in January 1904. The King Edward VII presented the medal to him at Buckingham Palace on 29 February 1904. He was appointed an Aide-de-Camp to the King in August 1907. Curragh Incident Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Gough was Chief of Staff to Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig at Aldershot Command. He played a role in the Curragh Incident in March 1914, in which his brother and other cavalry officers stationed in Ireland threatened to resign rather than coerce Ulster Protestants who had no wish to be part of an Irish state governed from Dublin. Gough accompanied his brother, who had been suspended from duty, to a meeting in London with the Adjutant-General Ewart on the morning of Sunday 22 March 1914, where Hubert confirmed that he would have obeyed a direct order to move against the Ulster population. Johnnie was in the War Office on 23 March, when French (CIGS) agreed to Hubert's demand that he amend a Cabinet document to promise that the British Army would not be used to enforce Irish Home Rule on Ulster. French may have been acting in the belief that the matter needed to be resolved quickly after learning from Haig that afternoon that all the officers of Aldershot Command would resign if Hubert were punished. First World War Gough went to France as a Brigadier-General in mid-August 1914 with the British Expeditionary Force, as Chief-of-Staff to Douglas Haig's I Corps. In early 1915 he continued as Haig's principal staff officer when Haig was given command of the newly created British First Army. By February 1915 whilst working on planning for the forthcoming attack at Neuve Chapelle, Gough was chosen to command one of the British New Army divisions. This appointment was due to commence sometime in March 1915 and would have entailed his promotion to the rank of Major-General. Death On 20 February 1915 Gough was visiting his old Battalion, the 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, in the line at