A FORMER comrade of a Bolton soldier has paid a moving tribute to the heroism which won him the Victoria Cross.

Contemporaries of Wilward Sandys-Clarke, known from childhood as Peter, gathered to honour the remarkable courage which saw him killed on the African battlefields as he valiantly tried to save his captain.

And for Ken Rushton, of Park Road, Little Lever, the occasion was especially emotional.

It was Mr Rushton, now 77, who plucked badly-injured Lt Sandys-Clarke from the battlefield and tended his wounds as Bolton's Loyal North Lancashire Regiment braved a fierce German onslaught in Tunisia in 1943.

But to his horror and admiration, the Lieutenant -- who had already captured three Nazi machine gun posts single-handedly -- refused to rest.

Mr Rushton said he recalls the events in Tunisia, 1943, as if they were yesterday.

"It was pitch black," he said. "I could hear somebody shouting 'Help, help' and and I went to get him and brought him back to what we called the mortar pit.

"His head was wounded and blood was pouring down his face. I started trying to bandage him but he said he couldn't stop because his captain was still out there.

"I couldn't do anything about it because I was only a private at the time and he was a lieutenant."

In fact, Lt Sandys-Clarke's commanding officer was already dead, and the 23-year-old perished from a sniper's bullet.

Mr Rushton was at Derby Barracks, Great Lever, last week as Bolton and District ex-servicemen presented Mr Sandys-Clarke's son, Robin, with a photograph of his burial place in Massicault, Tunisia.

"It was very emotional for me," he said. "Something goes through you when something like that happens. It makes a real impression on you.

"It felt good to be able to honour his name. I told his son his father was an exceptionally brave man."

Lt Sandys-Clarke's courage was all the more astonishing because he should have been invalided out of the Army in 1941 after a horrific car crash paralysed the left side of his face and gave him impaired vision.

But Lt Sandys-Clarke, who worked at T E Clarke's Mill in Turton, successfully begged a medical board to allow him back.

Bravery must have run in the family. Four of his ancestors had also won the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour for gallantry.

He was married to Irene, nee Deakin, daughter of Edward Carr Deakin, of Dimple Hall, Egerton.