First World War VC hero’s ‘utter disregard for danger’
The Victoria Cross awarded to a British soldier who killed some 20 attackers is among his medals that are being auctioned, with a £220,000 estimate.
Sergeant Arnold Loosemore single-handedly broke up a German position in the Third Battle of Ypres south of Langemarck, Belgium on August 11, 1917.
The day before, the Tommy machine gunner had shot down a German plane.
Two comrades were killed next to Sgt Loosemore, of the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), then he crawled through cut wire and turned his Lewis gun on the enemy.
It was blown up but Sergeant Loosemore killed three more attackers with a revolver then took out several snipers before carrying a wounded colleague to safety. He was presented with the VC by HM King George V in January 1918.
Its citation reads: “He displayed throughout an utter disregard of danger.”
Sergeant Loosemore also won a Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry at Zillebeke, Belgium in June 1918.
One of seven Sheffield brothers who all served in the First World War he lost his left leg to machine gun fire at Villers-en-Cauchies that October and never fully recovered, dying of tuberculosis in 1924 aged 27.
His medals will be sold by a collector at Noonans, London on July 26.
The firm called his heroics “phenomenal”.
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