A MEDAL presentation will be made for one of Chard’s biggest military heroes during the commemorations in the town on Saturday.

Replica medals will be unveiled for Victoria Cross recipient Cpl Vickery in a presentation ceremony by his distant relative Penny Herrick.

The medals will be on display at the Guildhall from next week.

Penny said: “I think it is a terrific honour to be asked to unveil the medals – he was such a fantastic person.”

Cpl Vickery was born in 1873 in Wambrook and when he was 24 he served in the Dorsetshire regiment taking part in the Tirah campaign on the northwest frontier of India.

He was presented with his Victoria Cross on October 20, 1897 as during an attack on Dargai Heights he rescued a wounded comrade under heavy fire.

Queen Victoria herself presented Cpl Vickery with the medal at the military hospital at Netley, Southampton.

On July 16, 1898, Cpl Vickery was invited to a civic reception in Chard and was presented with a gold medal by the mayor of Chard.

Even after this Cpl Vickery continued to fight for his country. He was a sergeant in the mounted infantry section in the Boer War, where he made a daring escape after being captured for four days.

Then he was called as a reserve in the First World War, and fought at the Ypres Salient.

Penny added: “He was quite a small chap – but a larger than life character!”

Cpl Vickery survived and after 1918 retired to Cardiff, where he worked for the Post Office and died peacefully in 1952.