A WAVE of excitement swept across Romsey 100 years ago this month, as crowds of locals gathered in the town’s square to give one of their own a hero’s homecoming.

Royal Field Artillery Bombardier Fred Luke, a resident of nearby Lockerley, arrived at Romsey’s train station to a sea of faces all keen to catch a glimpse of the Victoria Cross medal that he was proudly sporting on the tunic of his military uniform.

As he stepped off the train he was given a hearty cheer by those who had assembled before he was greeted with a handshake by the Mayor of Romsey, Mr Richard Bowen.

Daily Echo: A photograph taken during WWI of Bombardier Fred Luke pictured wearing his VC medal.

Fred Luke, who was born in Lockerley in 1895 and worked for the local miller in the years prior to joining the army in 1913, was the first Hampshire Victoria Cross hero of the First World War.

At the time of this Southampton Pictorial photograph, published in June 1915, he had just returned from a spell in a Manchester Hospital where he had been receiving treatment after being wounded on the battlefields of France, some nine months after the heroics that secured him the VC.

Bombardier Luke, a driver in the Royal Field Artillery, he was awarded the Victoria Cross – Britain’s highest award for valour – when on August 26, 1914, at Le Cateau, France, he and a colleague volunteered to help save two captured guns during the retreat from Mons. With the enemy only 100 yards away and under heavy gunfire, they managed to save one of the guns.

His bravery was rewarded later that year when King George V made a personal visit to present the young serviceman with his award whilst still on the field of battle.

The 19-year-old continued fighting at the front, later achieving the rank of sergeant, until he was wounded at Ypres on May 2, 1915.

After serving so valiantly during the Great War, Fred married and moved to Scotland in 1918, before once again stepping forward to “do his bit” for King and Country during the Second World War when he served as a ground gunner with the Royal Air Force.

In the peacetime years that followed Fred made the occasional trip back to the village of Lockerley, including his last visit in June 1981 when Fred was the guest of honour at the Lockerley and East Dean fete.

Daily Echo: Fred in his later years.

For a number of years until his death on March 12 1983, Frederick Luke was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living holder of the Victoria Cross, with his VC now on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London.