I’m VC hero Jack, your humble rag and bone man...
RESIDENTS were stunned when flyers landing on their door mat from the local rag and bone man carried “VC” after his name.
John Cunningham was one of the youngest heroes of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and his bravery earned him thevictoria Cross.yet his customers only discovered his heroics when the notes came through their letter box signed “John Cunningham VC... any old lumber”.
Private John Cunningham, known as Jack, became the only junk dealer in Britain to have his honour printed on his business flyers.
Brave Jack, the first person in Hull to win thevc during the Greatwar – aged 19 – was struggling to make ends meet back on Civvy Street.
The business flyers are among a treasure trove of memorabilia that has come to light – along with astonishing footage of Jack receiving hisvc from Georgev in 1917.
The film is now being restored after being found hidden away in an old Oxo tin for 104 years.
The film, showing Jack being decorated in front of a cheering crowd in Hyde Park, was only ever screened once – in 1917 at
Jack’s local cinema, the Hull Palace. But this year bosses of Theyorkshire Regiment Museum inyork were handed the tin with the film inside by Jack’s nephew, John Moore, now 82.
After enlisting at 17, Jack was sent to guard the Suez Canal, before being ordered to France.
He was 19 when he won the VC while fighting with the Hull Sportsmen Battalion, known as Pals, in November 1916, during the final offensive of the Somme. In June the following year he was one of
350 men and women decorated at the ceremony at Hyde Park. When his turn came there was a roar from the crowd and the King chatted to the
“Hull Hero” for some time.
Later that evening he and his parents returned home and, although his train arrived in Hull at 1.28am, half the city and a band were waiting.
A great roar went up and he was hoisted shoulder high and carried home by the crowd.
But Jack never recovered from his war wounds and died at home in 1941, aged just 43. He was buried in a pauper’s grave.