To mark the 100th anniversary since the start of the First World War, Yester Years will be looking back in our archives throughout this year to how the Guardian reported on the battles. This week we look at ....

‘The first Warrington man to win the Victoria Cross’

The headline in the July 31 edition of the Warrington Guardian in 1915 may have possibly been a little misleading being as it was attributed to a man from Melbourne, Australia, but the actions of Lance-Corporal Joseph Tombs near Rue du Bois, France on May 16, 1915 are well worth recollecting. “There had been some hard fighting, and an attack we made could not be pressed home and many wounded were left behind,” recalled an unnamed officer in Tombs’ brigade.

“In front there were a number of machine guns, while snipers were posted only 200 yards away picking people off. Into this walked the solitary figure of a man we afterwards found out to be Tombs.”

Tombs, a corporal in the King’s Regiment stationed in Warrington was awarded the Victoria Cross on August 12, 1915 for saving the lives of four of his fellow soldiers during the Battle of Festubert.

“When he reached the man he helped him the best he could eventually taking the soldier on his back. Then he reappeared, and began the perilous journey again.”

Tombs repeated this same journey, despite a shrapnel wound to his stomach – a fragment which was not removed until 1952 – twice dragging one man back to safety using his rifle sling to aid him.

A procession, fronted by Mayor Sir Peter Peacock, was held for Tombs in Warrington on July 31, 1915 leading from the Town Hall to the parish church.