Town remembers its VC heroes with memorial service

WAR heroes from Rotherham whose gallantry led to their being awarded the Victoria Cross were yesterday remembered at the dedication of a new memorial.

The names of Thomas Norman Jackson, George William Chafer and Ian John McKay have been engraved into the stones of the new fountain pool within Clifton Park’s Memorial Garden.

Yesterday’s ceremony heard how Private Chafer was serving with the 1st Battalion, the East Yorkshire Regiment, in the Somme in June 1916 when a messenger was left unconscious after a shell exploded nearby.

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Pte Chafer took the message from the man’s pocket and ran along the parapet, dodging fire. Although severely wounded and suffering the choking effects from a gas attack he succeeded in delivering the message. He died in 1966.

In 1918, also in France, Lance Corporal Thomas Norman Jackson of the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, was the first to volunteer to follow Captain C H Frisby across the Canal du Nord in his rush against an enemy machine-gun post.

He rushed the post, capturing two machine-guns, and so enabled the companies to advance.

The third Victoria Cross was awarded to Sergeant Ian McKay of the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, who was killed in the Falklands in 1982 while trying to save his colleagues.

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He was 29 and was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his courage and leadership.

The Mayor of Rotherham, Coun Shaun Wright, said: “The Victoria Cross is awarded for valour in the face of the enemy and the fact that only 39 have been presented since the Second World War shows just how significant this honour is. Their bravery is an inspiration to us all.”

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