Heroic soldier’s VC set to sell for £160k at auction

A VICTORIA Cross awarded to a soldier in the closing stages of the First World War is expected to fetch up to £160,000 at auction later this month.

Britain’s highest gallantry award was presented to Private James Towers of 2 Battalion the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) after he volunteered to take a message to a stranded platoon under heavy fire.

Pte Towers won the VC at Mericourt, France, on October 6, 1918. The Cameronians were holding a railway embankment but were ordered to retire after c o mi n g under heavy fire. However, one platoon had become cut off and did not receive the order.

A volunteer was called for to take a message to them but four men died on the mission before Towers volunteered to go next.

He was under enemy fire as soon as he moved but darted from shell-hole to shellhole and crawled through barbed wire entanglements. Finding the lost platoon, he gave them the message and the following day led them back to the British lines.

Speaking later, Pte Towers, pictured, said: ‘I felt then that I had to go to the help of these lads. After all, they were my pals.’

After the war Pte Towers returned to his native Lancashire and became a farmer. He died in 1977 aged 79. The medal will be auctioned by Dix Noonan Webb, in London on March 25.