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Plaque to mark site of VC hero's bravery
A Durham Light Infantryman who won the Army's first Victoria Cross of the Second World War is to have his finest hour marked at the scene of his heroics.
Captain Richard Annand, who was born in South Shields and lived in Durham City, won his medal for attacking a German position on the River Dyle in Belgium with hand grenades, delaying the enemy advance in May 1940.
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The site has never been marked, despite 35 allied servicemen losing their lives trying to hold the river.
Later this month, 27 DLI veterans will travel to Belgium to unveil a plaque which carries the names of those killed and an inscription detailing the heroic deeds of Capt Annand.
The plaque has been paid for by the DLI Association and residents of the Belgian district of Grez Doiceau.
It will be unveiled by the Count and Countess De Liederkerke on whose land the river flows. Capt Annand's nephew, Sir David Chapman, will lay a wreath.
Capt Annand lost nearly all his hearing during his military service and was invalided out of the Army in 1948 after turning down a commission in the Pay Corps.
He devoted the rest of his working life to helping the deaf and was personnel officer at the Finchale Abbey Training Centre for the Disabled, near his home in Durham City, until he retired in 1979.
He died in 2004, aged 90.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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