Victoria Cross memorial honours bravest of the brave
Their heroic sacrifices have seen them go down in history as some of the bravest soldiers to serve their country.
And now soldiers who were awarded the Victoria Cross are being remembered with new paving stones in hundreds of towns.
Stones are to be put down in 430 communities, including towns across the West Midlands, to pay tribute to soldiers awarded the highest honour for battlefield valour in the First World War.
And a Walsall student's own efforts to design a stone have been praised by the Government and will now go on display.
It is part of the commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of the war and a competition was held to find the right design.
Entries submitted ranged from primary and secondary schools, design professionals and students as well as members of the public and in total 201 entries were received.
The UK wide competition, launched by the Department for Communities and Local Government in August this year, will see stones presented to councils in those areas where Victoria Cross recipients were born.
Irfhan Ahmed, aged 18, from Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall won the secondary school category for his design which impressed the judges and MP Eric Pickles with the way it conveys a sense of a line of Victoria Cross winners by showing a row of medals. His design has been made by specialist stonemasons, bearing the name of Victoria Cross recipient Charles
George Bonner, from Walsall, and will now be put on display at the school.
It was unveiled at a ceremony at the Army and Navy Club in London.
The event was attended by the first living recipient of the Victoria Cross in over 30 years, Sergeant Johnson Beharry.
Charles George Bonner and John Henry Carless, both from Walsall, won the Victoria Cross and are being remembered by previous generations for their sacrifices.
