Claim 40870ed6Checked 21 Jul 2026
Not Enough EvidenceOn the truth scale
Inconclusive — not enough public evidence to rate.
“The corporal in that action received the Victoria Cross.”
Reasoning & Evidence21 Jul 2026
The claim is that in the First World War action in which Nigel Farage's grandfather was wounded, a corporal received the Victoria Cross. Public sources confirm that Farage's paternal grandfather, Harry Farage, served as a private and was wounded during the Battle of Arras (near Vimy Ridge) in 1917. However, none of the available sources identify Harry Farage's specific unit or the exact engagement, nor do they mention a corporal receiving the VC in that action. While Victoria Cross awards are matters of public record, without knowing the precise unit, date, and engagement, the specific claim cannot be corroborated or contradicted. This is essentially a private family anecdote that cannot be verified from publicly available evidence.
Sources:
- BBC News, "Leader profile: 24 hours with Nigel Farage" — https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-31771963
- Wikipedia, "Nigel Farage" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage
- Vimy Foundation, "The Victoria Cross" — https://vimyfoundation.ca/learn/the-victoria-cross
From article
Well, you know, this is all rather silly, isn’t it, because, actually, calling somebody ‘a damp rag’ is a pretty minor form of abuse compared with what happens every Wednesday at Prime Minister’s Questions.
My family, both my mother’s side and my father’s, were very patriotic people. They believed in this country, they believed that the sacrifices they’d lived through through two world wars, awful though they were, had been worthwhile to keep our freedom and democracy. When I was small, you could never spend time with my grandparents without them talking about the past. One of my grandfathers was wounded in the Great War, in a very nasty action in which the corporal got the VC.
We were basically, on both sides, traditionally Conservative – but all mega-Thatcherite, because that was a breath of fresh air.
Sources opened