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{{Short description|English Victoria Cross recipient (1897-1955)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=Alfred Maurice Toye
|birth_date=15 April 1897
|death_date= 6 September 1955 (aged 58)
|birth_place= [[Aldershot]], [[Hampshire]], England
|death_place= [[Tiverton, Devon]], England
|placeofburial=[[Tiverton Cemetery]]
|image= Alfred Maurice receiving the Victoria Cross.jpg
|caption=Captain Alfred Maurice Toye (right) receiving his Victoria Cross from King [[George V]] in 1918.
|nickname=
|allegiance={{flag|United Kingdom}}
|serviceyears=1912−1948
|servicenumber=1658
|rank=[[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]]
|branch={{army|United Kingdom}}
|commands=
|unit=[[Royal Engineers]] [[Middlesex Regiment]] [[Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]]
|battles= [[World War I]] [[World War II]]
|awards= [[File:UK Victoria Cross ribbon bar.svg|30px]] [[Victoria Cross]] [[Military Cross]] [[Order of the Nile]]
|laterwork=
}}
[[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] '''Alfred Maurice Toye''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|VC|MC}} (15 April 1897, [[Aldershot]]<ref name="AldershotMuseum">{{cite web | url=http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aldershot-museum/local-history-aldershot/military-biographies/brigadier-alfred-maurice-toye.htm | archive-url=https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20120423070126/http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aldershot-museum/local-history-aldershot/military-biographies/brigadier-alfred-maurice-toye.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=23 April 2012 | title=Aldershot Museum | accessdate=1 March 2013 }}</ref> – 6 September 1955, [[Tiverton, Devon]]) was an English recipient of the [[Victoria Cross]], the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] forces.

==Military career==
Toye was born in [[Aldershot]] in 1897, the son of James Robert Toye (1854–1943), an Army Pensioner and Clerk, and Elizabeth Charlotte (née Dodds, 1862–1947). He was educated at the Garrison School in Aldershot<ref name=NAM>[https://ww1.nam.ac.uk/stories/captain-alfred-toye/#.YDQQju1xdpk Captain Alfred Toye VC], [[National Army Museum]] website</ref> before enlisting into the [[Royal Engineers]] as a bugler<ref name="Devon">{{cite web | url=http://www.devonheritage.org/Places/Tiverton/AlfredMauriceToyeVCMC.htm | title=Devon Heritage | accessdate=1 March 2013}}</ref> in 1912 before being commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment during World War I.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29983|page=2594|date=13 March 1917|supp=y}}</ref> Before joining the Army, Toye was an active Boy Scout, attaining the rank of patrol leader at the 2nd Aldershot Scout Troop. He was the first member of his troop to become a King's Scout.<ref name=NAM/>{{sfn|Gliddon|2013|p=118}}

He was 20 years old, and an acting [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|British Army Captain]] in the 2nd Battalion, [[The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own)]], during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 25 March 1918 at Eterpigny Ridge, France, Captain Toye displayed conspicuous bravery and fine leadership. He three times re-established a post which had been captured by the enemy and, when his three other posts were cut off, he fought his way through the enemy with one officer and six men. He counter-attacked with 70 men and took up a line which he maintained until reinforcements arrived. In two subsequent operations he covered the retirement of his battalion and later re-established a line that had been abandoned before his arrival. He was twice wounded but remained on duty.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30675|supp=y |page=5556|date=7 May 1918 }}</ref>

==After the war==
[[File:Alfred Toye VC grave Tiverton cemetery.jpg|thumb|140px|right|Toye's grave in [[Tiverton Cemetery]] in 2017]]
[[File:Alfred Toye VC plaque Aldershot.jpg|thumb|right|140px|The memorial plaque to Toye in the [[Municipal Gardens, Aldershot|Municipal Gardens]] in his native [[Aldershot]]]]

A week after his investiture with the VC at [[Aldershot]] he married Flora Robertson (1896-1979) at the [[Church of St Michael the Archangel, Aldershot|Church of St Michael]] in his native Aldershot. They had two daughters, Joan Flora Toye (1920-2017) and Enid Audrey Toye (1925-2000). From 1925 to 1932 he was chief instructor at the Royal Egyptian Military College and Commandant of War Office Schools of Chemical Warfare 1940- 1942. Toye then joined the teaching staff at the Staff College, Camberley. From 1934 to 1944 he was on active service with the 6th Airborne Division and with General Headquarters, Middle East from 1945 to 1948.<ref name="AldershotMuseum" /> He later achieved the rank of [[Brigadier]] serving with the [[6th Airborne Division]] in World War II.{{sfn|Gliddon|2013|pp=119-120}}

He retired to [[Tiverton, Devon|Tiverton]] in [[Devon]] where he died of cancer in 1955 at the Madame Curie Memorial Foundation at [[Tidcombe Hall]] in Tiverton and is buried in [[Tiverton Cemetery]].<ref name=NAM/>{{sfn|Gliddon|2013|p=120}}

On 25 March 2018, on the 100th anniversary of the action in which he won his [[Victoria Cross]] during [[World War I]], a memorial to Toye was unveiled in the [[Municipal Gardens, Aldershot|Municipal Gardens]] in his native [[Aldershot]].

==Victoria Cross==
His VC is displayed at the [[National Army Museum]], Chelsea, England.<ref name="Devon" />

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*[[Monuments to Courage]] (David Harvey, 1999)
*{{cite book|year=1997|title=The Register of the Victoria Cross|editor-last=Buzzell|editor-first=Nora|location=Cheltenham|publisher=This England Alma House|isbn=0-906324-27-0}}
*{{cite book|last=Napier|first=Gerald|title=The Sapper VCs: The Story of Valour in the Royal Engineers and Its Associated Corps|year=1998|publisher=[[The Stationery Office]]|isbn=978-0117728356}}
*{{cite book|first=Gerald|last=Gliddon|year=2013|orig-year=2004|title=Spring Offensive 1918|series=[[VCs of the First World War]]|location=[[Stroud]], [[Gloucestershire]]|publisher=[[The History Press]]|isbn=978-0-7524-8730-4}}
*{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Oldfield|title=Victoria Crosses on the Western Front: Continuation of the German 1918 Offensives, 24 March–24 July 1918|year=2019|publisher=[[Pen and Sword Books]]|isbn=978-1-4738-2710-3}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060810230716/http://www.remuseum.org.uk/rem_his_vc.htm Royal Engineers Museum] Sappers VCs
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041125092218/http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/devonshi.htm Location of grave and VC medal] ''(Devonshire)''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toye, Alfred Maurice}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials in Devon]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Aldershot]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers soldiers]]
[[Category:Middlesex Regiment officers]]
[[Category:British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]]
[[Category:Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers]]
[[Category:British Army brigadiers of World War II]]
[[Category:British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:Academics of the Staff College, Camberley]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]

Alfred Toye - Revision history

imported>Kajmer05: Fix