Victoria Cross: 'Inspiring' WW1 messenger's medal sold for £248,000

Pte Towers braved heavy machine gun fire and barbed wire as he raced to the stranded platoon

A Victoria Cross awarded to a World War One soldier who braved enemy fire to deliver orders to a stranded platoon has sold for £248,000 at auction.

Pte James Towers received the medal for volunteering to take the orders despite having seen five messengers shot down in Mericourt, France in October 1918.

More than a decade later, the Broughton farmer told a newspaper he felt he had to help, as "they were my pals".

The medal previously sold for £144,000 in an auction in 2015.

Christopher Mellor-Hill, spokesman for Dix Noonan Webb auctioneers said Pte Towers' "display of supreme courage and determination [was] a great inspiration to all ranks".

The then-21-year-old soldier's actions came as his unit, 2nd Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) held a railway embankment at Mericourt on 6 October 1918.

'Disregard of danger'

One platoon became cut off from the rest and did not receive the order to retreat when the soldiers came under heavy attack.

Five volunteers were shot down attempting to take the message to them, before Pte Towers succeeded, braving heavy machine gun fire and barbed wire as he raced to their position.

He received his medal from King George V on 8 May 1919.

Pte Towers was awarded the Victoria Cross (far left) in 1919

Pte Towers, who died in 1977, told the newspaper in November 1929 that the "worst part was that I didn't know just where our chaps were".

"I felt then that I had to go to the help of these lads. After all, they were my pals.

"Five men tried to get through and I was the sixth. I made a dive and got through."

The citation for his Victoria Cross reads: "His valour, determination, and utter disregard of danger were an inspiring example to all."

Mr Mellor-Hill said the medal had "gone to a good home."

The Broughton bypass, which runs close to where what was his dairy farm, was named in his honour in 2017, and a year later, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at Preston Flag Market.