FOUR soldiers were shot dead after volunteering to go back for reinforcements in a Great War battle.

When the company commander asked for a fifth to look death in the face, Leigh hero Alfred Wilkinson never gave the mission a second thought.

He realised somebody had to get back to the main reserve body of British troops in Marou -- and that brave, selfless action in 1918 led to him winning the top military honour, the Victoria Cross.

Ironically Leigh's biggest hero was killed during the Second World War -- by a dead bird.

It took Pte Wilkinson an hour and a half to negotiate the 600 yards of barrage-swept land, sometime crawling to avoid the shells and machine gun bullets that fell around him. He delivered his message then recovered his tracks, and got through safely again.

Under cover of British fire his company fell back in open order to the reserve lines but lost a considerable number of men.

For the third time the Lance Corporal crossed the danger zone without a wound. As a result of being reinforced the Brits, including Wilkinson, took the German position and drove the enemy back 1000 yards.

It was this wonderful action that led to him receiving the VC from the King at Buckingham Palace.

Ironically he died in 1940, aged 43, from carbon monoxide poisoning after investigations revealed that a ventilation pipe at Bickershaw Colliery where he worked in the surveyor's laboratory had been blocked by a dead bird.

He had been testing samples of air taken from different areas of the mine to determine the amount of gas present when he fell asleep and died in his office chair.

He was buried at Leigh cemetery with full military honours.

What a man -- and what a sad, ironic end. I've only just discovered what our hero went through. His surviving family must be very proud of a great man, one Leigh must never forget.