Captain Philip Gardner, VC — “Pip” Gardner — won the Victoria Cross in what many would regard as the classic way: saving the life of a comrade under enemy fire, so placing his own life in dire risk. He had already been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the battle of Halfaya Pass, and was captured at the fall of Tobruk. During one period of privation as prisoners of war, he and his comrades decided that their conditions were still marginally better than the poor of London during the blitz and organised a collection to ease their distress.

He was serving as a captain with the 4th Royal Tank Regiment in 32nd Tank Brigade in the Western Desert at the time of the British “Crusader” offensive, in the autumn of 1941, designed to destroy the bulk of Rommel’s armour and force him to abandon his siege of the port of Tobruk.

The regiment took part in what turned out to be a premature attempt to break out from Tobruk to join the New Zealand Division approaching from Sidi Rezegh. During the fighting on November 23, Gardner was sent with two Matilda tanks to rescue a pair of armoured cars of the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards trapped under enemy fire.

The two tanks raced down the long desert slope as fast they could go, abreast with a hundred yards between them. Crossing the ridge, Gardner saw that both armoured cars were being used for target practice by the enemy with slow deliberate fire. Ordering the second tank to make a wide circuit to the left, he ran his tank up to the nearer of the stricken vehicles while his accompanying tank manoeuvred and kept up sustained fire on the enemy position. Gardner dismounted and tried to unhitch one of his tow-ropes, to tow the car away.

The one stowed along the side of his tank was jammed, so he loosened the one at the rear and signalled to his driver to turn about. In order to keep the main gun facing towards the enemy, the gunner began to traverse his turret and in doing so accidently killed the wireless operator/gun loader who, most unfortunately, chose that moment to put out his head to see what was happening.

The gunner had to ease the body clear before he could complete the gun traverse and, having done so, saw Gardner lifting Lieutenant Beame of the Dragoon Guards, who had been lying wounded with both legs shattered, back into his armoured car.

With the tow-rope now secured, Gardner was signalling the driver to move when a bullet struck him in the leg, fortunately not breaking it. As the tank moved, the tow-rope parted — probably shot away. Despite his own wound, Gardner returned to the armoured car, lifted Beame out and staggered back to his tank, half carrying and half dragging him.

The gunner continued loading and firing the Besa machinegun as fast as he could, single-handed, to distract the enemy while Gardner hoisted the badly wounded officer onto the rear deck of the tank. Gardner returned to the armoured car but found no other survivors. He then signalled to the driver to advance, and clambered up beside the wounded officer, receiving another bullet, this time in the arm, as he did so. The gunner then ordered the driver full speed ahead and, reloading his gun with another belt of Besa, kept up fire on the enemy position as the gallant little party withdrew.

During earlier operations in the desert in June, Gardner had been commanding one of two troops of tanks which ran into an unmarked minefield near Halfaya pass. All six tanks lost tracks and were immobilised. Although sitting ducks to be picked off by the enemy one by one, they were still able to fire their guns and were instructed by radio to give fire support to an Indian Brigade mounting an attack within their range. This they did until Gardner’s tank received a direct hit which killed the driver and put his turret gun out of action. The other troop leader, the senior of the two, dismounted and walked over to Gardner to consider whether they could repair any of the broken tracks and withdraw with at least part of their small force. In moving between the stationary vehicles, the other officer trod on an anti-personnel mine and was fatally injured.

Left in charge of the two troops, Gardner struggled all afternoon to repair the broken tank tracks, but as darkness fell he realised that he would have to withdraw on foot. Conscious of the fate of the other troop leader, he shouted to the surviving crews to walk back along the marks left in the sand by the tanks as they had advanced — so eventually extracting themselves from the minefield. Next day he returned, again on foot, to collect the identity discs and personal possessions of the crew members lying dead in the abandoned tanks. He was awarded the MC for his courage and devotion.

After Tobruk fell to Rommel in June 1942, Gardner was captured and shipped to an Italian prisoner-of-war camp. When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, he and others escaped from the camp, but he was recaptured by the Germans and sent to Stalag IV B in Muhlberg.

Later, he was moved to an officer camp at Brunswick. It was while there that a collection in the form of IOUs was organised for the benefit of the poorer people of London who had suffered so badly in the Blitz. After his release in 1945, Gardner arranged for the collection of the IOUs, and in due course this led to the foundation of the Brunswick Boys’ Club in Fulham.

Philip John Gardner was born in Sydenham and educated at Dulwich College, where later in life he served as a governor. He joined his family firm of air-conditioning manufacturers in 1932 and went out to Hong Kong in 1934 to gain experience. There he joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force. After returning home, he joined the Westminster Dragoons of the Territorial Army as a trooper in 1938 and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1940.

After a short spell with 4th Commando at Weymouth, he joined 4th Royal Tanks in the Western Desert just in time to take part in the ill-fated “Battleaxe” offensive in June 1941.

When demobilised towards the end of 1945, he returned to his family business, J Gardner & Co, of which he became managing director and later chairman. When the air-conditioning division was sold off, he continued as chairman of J Gardner Holdings, a property development company, until two years before his death. He was Honorary Secretary of the VC and GC Association for a number of years and president of the Brunswick Boys’ Club for 40 years.

He married Renee Sherburn in 1939. She survives him, along with their son.

Gardner’s death leaves 15 surviving holders of the Victoria Cross.

Captain P. J. Gardner, VC, MC, Second World War veteran, was born on December 25, 1914. He died on February 15, 2003, aged 88.