[1] He was 25 years old, and a private in the 1/5th Battalion, the King's Regiment (Liverpool) (part of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division,[5] British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 4 June 1916 near Ficheux, France, Private Procter noticed some movement on the part of two wounded men who were lying in full view of the enemy about 15 yards in front of the trenches.

He at once went out on his own initiative and, although heavily fired at, ran and crawled to the two men, got them under cover of a small bank dressed their wounds and promised that they would be rescued after dark.

[7][8] After demobilisation in 1919, he returned to the provision trade where he worked as a salesman until 1926,[1] when he took up full-time study for Church of England ministry at St Aidan's College, Birkenhead.

[12] After retiring from full-time ministry, he lived in the later 1960s at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, where he was chaplain to the town's British Legion branch and in 1966 he was one of seven winners of the VC who were invited by the Minister of Defence to attend the 50th anniversary Battle of the Somme celebrations in France.