Adam Herbert Wakenshaw

Born in Duke Street, Newcastle upon Tyne on 9 June 1914, Adam Wakenshaw was the youngest of thirteen children. Aged 14, he left St Aloysius' Roman Catholic School in Newcastle to work underground at Elswick pit. Later he worked at Hazelrigg and as a general labourer. In 1939 he enlisted at Gateshead as a Private in the 9th Battalion DLI. He fought in Belgium and northern France in 1940 with the British Expeditionary Force and was wounded, before returning home after Dunkirk.

He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions at Mersa Matruh in North Africa on 27 June 1942. Adam Wakenshaw was 28 years old when he was killed and he is buried at the El Alamein War Cemetery in Egypt.

Mrs Dorothy Wakenshaw and her eight year old son went to Buckingham Palace on 4 March 1943 to receive her husband's Victoria Cross. King George VI pinned the Cross on her son's chest.

See "Beyond Praise. The Durham Light Infantrymen who were awarded the Victoria Cross" by Stephen D Shannon, 1998, ISBN 1 897585 44 6. This has a foreword by Richard Annand VC.