A Victoria Cross winner from Huddersfield has been honoured for a third time.
A commemorative paving stone for Pte Ernest Sykes has been placed outside the George Lawton Hall in Mossley – in 1996 a blue plaque commemorating the former railwayman’s heroics during the second phase of Arras offensive in France had been unveiled at the hall which is a base for community events.
Earlier this year another memorial, organised by the Railway Heritage Trust, was unveiled at Mossley Station.
The paving stones are part of a four year (2014-2018) Government initiative to recognise the deeds of all First World War VC winners. It is one of 469 being laid in communities throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Guests of honour were Ernest’s granddaughter and grandsons Doris, 75, and his three grandsons, Malcolm, Colin and Kevin Sykes along with his three-year-old great great grandson Lucas Scandling from Dalton.
Mossley Brass Band played before the ceremony and a member of the band played the Last Post.
When he enlisted in 1914 Ernest was living in Milnsbridge but was born in Mossley and became a railwayman after the war.
He was serving with the 27th (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Irish Brigade) and was awarded the army’s highest award for bravery for treating five wounded men under heavy machine gun fire in 1917.
His Victoria Cross is now owned by the regimental museum of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers housed in the Abbot’s Tower, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.
During World War Two Ernest served in the 25th (West Riding) Battalion of the Home Guard and was living in Lockwood where he died on August 3,1949, aged 64 and his grave is at Lockwood Cemetery.
Ernest, his wife Alice and their two sons Percy and Harold, were on the 1911 census as living in Milnsbridge.
