THE VICTORIA CROSS AWARDED TO PRIVATE ALFRED WILKINSON, 5TH BN, THE MANCHESTER REGIMENT, HAS BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION BY DIX NOONAN WEBB OF LONDON. |
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29 June 2006 |
The Victoria Cross and WWI campaign medals awarded to Private Alfred Wilkinson of the Manchester Regiment, late Royal Scots Greys and Seaforth Highlanders, was sold at auction by Dix Noonan Webb on Thursday, 29th June 2006, for a hammer price of £110,000. The VC group was purchased on behalf of the Michael Ashcroft Trust, the holding institution for Lord Ashcroft's VC Collection. |
For the award of the Victoria Cross. [ London Gazette, 9 January 1919 ], Marou, France, 20 October 1918, Private Alfred Robert Wilkinson, 1 / 5th Bn, The Manchester Regiment.
For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on 20th October 1918, during the attack on Marou, when four runners in succession having been killed in an endeavour to deliver a message to the supporting company, Private Wilkinson volunteered for the duty. He succeeded in delivering the message, though the journey involved exposure to extremely heavy machine-gun and shell fire for 600 yards. Alfred Wilkinson was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on the 22nd February 1919. The renewal of hostilities in 1939 saw Wilkinson join the Home Guard and being appointed a Special Constable. At the time he was employed in the surveyor's laboratory as a tester at Bickershaw Colliery, but died as a result of gas poisoning at the colliery on 18th October 1940. At the subsequent inquest it was revealed that a sparrow had become wedged in a ventilation pipe thereby causing Wilkinson's death from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was buried with full military honours in Leigh Borough Cemetery. |
Iain Stewart, 29 June 2006