The first Victoria Cross awarded to a private in World War I has sold for £276,000 at auction, exceeding expectations. The medal, awarded to Pte Sidney Godley of East Grinstead, West Sussex, was expected to fetch up to £180,000.
Pte Godley manned a machine-gun position defending Nimy Bridge in Mons under fire from German soldiers in the first weeks of the war. He was badly wounded on 23 August 1914, with shrapnel in his back and a bullet in his skull, but protected British positions until captured.
Oliver Pepys of Spink auction house described the medal as 'hugely important' and said it attracted much interest. The hammer price was £230,000, reaching £276,000 with additional charges, paid by an anonymous private collector.
Pte Godley was presented with the VC by King George V in 1919 after four years as a prisoner of war. He died in 1957 aged 68 and was buried with full military honours in Loughton Cemetery, Essex. Blue plaques commemorate him in East Grinstead and Loughton, and a block of flats in Tower Hamlets is named in his honour.
At the same auction, a group of five medals including a VC awarded posthumously to Capt A F G Kilby from Cheltenham sold for £240,000. Capt Kilby was killed in the Battle of Loos in 1915.
