Victoria Cross awarded to Private Frederick Edwards, 12th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), 1916

Private Jeremiah Edwards (1894-1964) from Queenstown (now Cobh) in County Cork, gained his Victoria Cross (VC) on 26 September 1916 for knocking out a German machine gun at Thiepval Ridge on the Somme with grenades. He was awarded his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 5 February 1917.

Edwards was later promoted to corporal and after leaving the Army he was forced to sell his VC to make ends meet. He died in Surrey on 9 March 1964.

Presented by the Trustees of the Middlesex Regimental Museum