Memorial to Great War VC '˜should be in his home city'

North Lincolnshire Council has appealed for relatives of John “Jack” Cunningham, who won the VC in 1916, to come forward, ahead of the stone being laid in Scunthorpe.

However the soldier, who was just 19 when he won the nation’s highest military honour for single-handedly killing and capturing Germans during the final offensive of the Battle of the Somme, has always been considered one of Hull’s four VCs.

His family were travellers and he was born in a caravan parked at Swains Yard off Manley Street, Scunthorpe, but they later moved permanently to Hull, where he went to school.

At 17 he joined the Hull Sportsmen’s Pals battalion, married in the city and is buried in the city’s Western Cemetery.

There’s a memorial to him at the city’s Cenotaph along with the three other Hull VC winners. Historian Ron Fairfax, from Hull, said the latest memorial to Cunningham should be “with his comrades in arms”: “Cunningham is more associated with Hull than Scunthorpe – he joined one of the five Hull Pals Battalions.

“Really VCs have nothing to do with birthplace, it is more to do with the regiment they joined and who they were associated with.”

The Department for Communities and Local Government decided three years ago to commemorate more than 600 VC winners in their birthplaces.

In Pte Cunningham’s case a decision has not yet been made where it will go as his birthplace no longer exists and is now the site of the town’s bus station.

Coun Liz Redfern, Leader of North Lincolnshire Council, appealed to relatives to come forward so they can be involved in the laying of the stone. She said: “It was over 70 years ago since John Cunningham passed away, which makes our search that bit more difficult.

“However, we are hopeful that he has family members out there or people who knew of his family.”