ONE of the six Victoria Crosses "won before breakfast" could be coming home to Bury - if a Lottery bid is successful.

The Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in Bury is hoping to put in a bid for the VC won by Cpt Richard Raymond Willis during the Gallipoli landings in 1915.

The VC comes under the hammer today Friday Novmebr 29, at Dix, Noonan and Webb in London, and is valued at £35,000.

Cpt Willis, of the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, led a contingent of troops to storm the Turkish beach under heavy fire on that fateful morning at Gallipoli.

He was one of six Lancashire Fusiliers to receive the cross for their acts of bravery and devotion to duty.

As the Bury Times went to press this week, the Fusiliers Museum was waiting on a decision from the National Lottery's fast-track system, which could allot them £25,000. If the bid is successful, the grant will be topped up with a £25,000 donation from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and added to £3,000 from museum funds.

The cash bid is part of a plan to bring all six VCs to the museum for a special Gallipoli exhibition in April next year.

And despite the fact that one of the medals is in Western Australia, museum staff have already began their action plan to bring all six home to Bury.

The museum currently holds four VCs won by the Lancashire Fusiliers, including one awarded to Sgt F. E. Stubbs, one of the six "won before breakfast".

Maj John Hallam said: "We are hoping to get all six medals here for April 25 next year - 82 years after the Gallipoli landings.

"We are in the process of writing to holders of the medals." Museum custodian, Tony Sprason added: "We believe that the VCs won by the Lancashire Fusiliers belong here, in the regiment museum in Bury, where they can be displayed to the public.

"Our only fear is that a private collector will want to buy the medal for their own, personal collection - at any price."

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