From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 051351 SEP 10 By Simon Mowbray, PA News A Victoria Cross sold by a soldier's mother for L73.50 is expected to fetch about L60,000 at auction after re-emerging after nearly 100 years. Private John Barry, of the Royal Irish Regiment, won the decoration for outstanding bravery during the Boer War. But just four years after his violent death at hands of enemy troops, his mother was forced to sell the medal and other service decorations to a jeweller in the family's home town of Kilkenny, Ireland. Its whereabouts remained a mystery until an anonymous private collector recently came forward to put the medal up for auction. Pierce Noonan, a partner in London's Bond Street auctioneers Dix, Noonan and Webb, described the find as "extraordinary". "This is a very special medal indeed," said Mr Noonan. "It was one of the first ever to be awarded posthumously and is in exceptional condition. "It is one of the finest VCs I have ever seen and is still in the original box. "We expect a lot of interest from collectors." Pte Barry was killed during hand-to-hand fighting with invading Boers on a hilltop outpost near Belfast in Northern Transvaal, South Africa, on January 8, 1901. The enemy was trying to capture a machine gun which Barry smashed with a pickaxe before it could be carried away. For his act of defiance, he was shot. Barry's final moments of bravery were later recorded in his regiment's official report of the battle. It read: "The action had continued for about half-an-hour when the Boers made a second rush on the gun, and being met at that point by a mere remnant, forced us back. "At this moment, Pte Barry, who was nearest the gun, picked up a pickaxe lying near it. "As he forced his way to the gun through the Boers, efforts were made to stop him, and he had just time to drive in the point of the pick into the junction of the barrel and breech casing before he was literally swept down by a hail of bullets." The broken gun is now an exhibit at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. The auction takes place on September 22. Kenneth Pantling Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. (Edmund Burkeá1729-97) Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
