Jack Mantle, whose home was in Southampton, received the only Victoria Cross awarded to the Navy for an act of valour on mainland Britain during the Second World War.

The medal, the nation's highest award for valour, was presented posthumously to 23-year-old Leading Seaman Mantle for his heroic deeds on July 4, 1940.

The citation for his VC read: "Leading Seaman Jack Foreman Mantle was in charge of the starboard pom-pom when HMS Foylebank was attacked by enemy aircraft.

"Early in the action his left leg was shattered by a bomb, but he went on firing his gun, with hand gear only, for the ship's electric power had failed.

"He suffered several further wounds but his great courage bore him up until the end of the fight, when he fell by the gun he had so valiantly served.'' He died at Portland in Dorset of wounds received during the German attack and is buried at thre nearby Naval Cemetery where his Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone bears the engraving of the Victoria Cross.

By coincidence Jack Mantle has something in common with Southampton's only VC of the First World War awarded to Daniel Marcus William Beak.

Both were pupils at Taunton's School whose home used to be in Highfield, Southampton although they were schoolboys many years apart.

Beak survived the First World War. his gallantry award was in the aftermath of action in France in August and September 1918 where he fought as a member of the Drake Battalion of the Naval Brigade.

Daniel Beak died aged 76 in 1967.

Name: Jack Mantle Occupation: Sailor DIED: Aged 23 after wounds received on July 4, 1940 Local Link: Lived in Southampton