A MEDAL awarded posthumously to a Tranmere-born World War One hero is expected to be sold for over £200,000 when it comes up for auction.
The Victoria Cross (VC) was given to Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Christopher Cookson of the Royal Navy who was killed in 1915 while fighting the Turks in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq).
The medal, which the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, will be auctioned by Noonans Mayfair on March 13 and is expected to fetch between £180,000 and £220,000.
Cookson was born in Cavendish Park, Tranmere on December 13 1883 and was 31 years old and a Lieutenant-Commander in the command of HMS Comet on the River Tigris when his actions, on September 28 1915, during the advance on Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia earned him the VC.
The citation in the London Gazette of January 21 1916 read: "The King has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Christopher Cookson, D.S.O., R.N., in recognition of the following act of most conspicuous gallantry during the advance on Kut-el-Amara:
"On September 28 1915, the river gunboat Comet had been ordered with other gunboats to examine, and if possible destroy, an obstruction placed across the river by the Turks.
"When the gunboats were approaching the obstruction, a very heavy rifle and machine-gun fire was opened on them from both banks.
"An attempt to sink the centre dhow of the obstruction by gunfire having failed, Lieutenant Commander Cookson ordered the Comet to be placed alongside, and himself jumped on to the dhow with an axe and tried to cut the wire hawsers connecting it with the two other craft forming the obstruction.
"He was immediately shot in several places and died within a few minutes."
Cookson entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in September 1897 and had already seen action in the Boxer Rebellion in North China between 1899 and 1901.
His Distinguished Service Order (DSO) was sent to his mother in September 1915 and she received his VC from the King at Buckingham Palace on November 29 1916 - she was his only immediate relative since he was unmarried, and his father had died.
Cookson was buried in Amara War Cemetery, but the grave was subsequently destroyed, and his name is now among those listed on the cemetery wall. He is also commemorated in the UK with a plaque in Whitechurch Canonicorum in Dorset.
Mark Quayle, Medal Specialist and Associate Director of Noonans, said: “Cookson’s repeated acts of gallantry, in the harshest of environments, led to him making the ultimate sacrifice for both duty and for those who meant the most to him - the men under his command.
"Leading a ‘cavalry charge’ on water in a desperate attempt to force his way through the enemy position ultimately proved futile, but his act was one of cold, calculated bravery in the face of certain death. Alas, he rolled the dice one too many times."
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