Victoria Cross recipients made the ultimate sacrifice, says BOB OGLEY.

Commemorative paving stones will be laid in the home towns of the 480 British-born men who were awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) during the 1914-18 war.

The scheme to honour the VC holders will be a centrepiece of a Government scheme being planned from 2014 to 2018 to mark the centenary of the First World War.

Ministers have also unveiled plans to provide extra help for councils wanting to renovate previously neglected war memorials.

One of the district’s First World War heroes was Major Alexander Malins Lafone of Court Lodge, Knockholt, who is remembered each year on Remembrance Day.

On October 27, 1917, at Beersheba, Palestine, the 47-year-old Major held a position for seven hours against vastly superior forces.

There were several cavalry charges and heavy losses and only when all of his men, with the exception of three, had been hit, did Major Lafone order those who could walk to move to a trench slightly to the rear and from his own position maintain a most heroic resistance.

When finally surrounded and charged by the enemy he stepped into the open and continued to fight until he was mortally wounded.

It was an incredible act of bravery.

The Victoria Cross was presented to his parents by the King.

Another VC holder came from Ightham – Captain Thomas Colyer-Fergusson of the Northamptonshire Regiment, who lived at Ightham Mote with his parents.

His courageous action took place at Bellewaarde, Belgium on July 31, 1917, when he unexpectedly found himself with a sergeant and five men only.

He carried out his planned attack nevertheless and succeeded in capturing the enemy trench.

During an enemy counter attack, assisted only by an orderly, he attacked and captured an enemy machine-gun turning it on the assailants.

Later, he captured a second enemy machine gun but shortly afterwards was killed by a sniper.

He won his VC postumously.

A soldier from Hildenborough who won the VC in the last year of the 1914-18 war was Captain William White of the 38th Battalion Machine Gun Corps.

He lived to be 80 and died in 1974.

His headstone is in St John’s churchyard, Hildenborough.

VC holders from the Second World War include Frank Durrant of Green Street Green, Orpington, who was a sergeant with the Royal Engineers.

During the fighting on March 27 1942, at St Nazaire, France, Durrant was in charge of a Lewis gun on a motor launch, which came under heavy fire.

He had no protection and was wounded in several places but he refused to surrender and continued firing until the launch was boarded and those alive taken away.

Durrant died the next day.

A Bexleyheath man, Lieutenant (later Captain) Richard Stannard received his VC for action in Norway where his ship HMS Arab survived 31 bombing attacks in five days.

He also saved a pier from being destroyed by fire and shot down a bomber.

Lance Corporal Henry Eric Harden of Colyer Road, Northfleet, also died.

He was with the Royal Medical Corps and on January 23, 1942, at Brachterbeek in the Netherlands, he risked enemy fire on two occasions to bring in wounded colleagues, ordering a bren gun to give him cover.

He was wounded and his smock ripped to pieces but he carried on.

On a third occasion he attempted to bring in a wounded officer but fell with a sniper’s bullet through his head.

He was awarded a posthumous VC.

I understand the Heritage Lottery Fund is giving £6m in grants for those wanting to mark the centenary of the 1914-18 war.

Funding is also available from the War Memorials Trust and English Heritage.