Memorial stone for VC winner Hogan

HERO: Sgt John Hogan

A COMMEMORATIVE paving stone will be unveiled to honour the first Oldhamer to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War One — exactly 100 years since his act of bravery.

A special service will be held on October 29 to honour Sergeant John Hogan as part of a national campaign to lay lasting reminders in the birth places of Victoria Cross recipients from the 1914-18 war.

Members of the public are invited to the unveiling and service at Royton War Memorial in Royton Park, Bleasdale Street, from 11am.

Members of Sgt Hogan’s family, dignitaries and representatives of local community groups and schools will attend.

Sgt Hogan was born on April 8, 1884, in Royton. He received the VC for bravery in Festubert, France on October 29, 1914, when he recaptured a trench that had been overrun by the enemy.

In a later account Sgt Hogan said: “I’ve done nothing to deserve the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant Leach and I, at the head of 10 men, crawled a distance of a hundred yards amidst an inferno of bullets. Getting into the trenches, we had a hand to hand fight with the occupants, of whom we killed eight, wounded two and made 16 prisoners.

“Looking back on the incident in cold blood I have since often marvelled how it all happened and how it was that neither Lieutenant Leach or myself was injured.”

He was presented with the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour, by King George V at Buckingham Palace in 1915. He died in October 1943