NORMAN WATSON: Rare Scottish VC goes to auction
Cameronians VC, (Dix Noonan Web).
The Victoria Crosses awarded to Scottish regiments are, by and large, in national institutions, military museums or in the astonishing collection assembled by Lord Ashcroft at the Imperial War Museum. Few remain in private hands.
There should be considerable interest, therefore, in the VC awarded to 21-year-old Private James Towers, 2nd Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), which comes up for sale this week at coin and medal specialists Dix Noonan Web in London.
Pte Towers, with utter disregard for his own safety, volunteered to carry a vital message to a stranded platoon at Mericourt in October 1918, whilst in the knowledge that five of his comrades had already been in killed in turn making attempts to carry out the same task.