Eighty years ago World War II was raging at points around the globe. On this day in 1942 - Saturday, June 27 - Adam Wakenshaw from Newcastle, a private in the Durham Light Infantry, was killed in a ferocious battle on the desert sands of Egypt.
But before he finally succumbed to terrible injuries, the 28-year-old showed such remarkable bravery that he was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross - Britain's highest award for military valour - and his selfless courage in the face of death was reported in newspapers across the country.
The front page of the Daily Mirror reported how Pte Wakenshaw who "with an arm blown off, fired his gun in Egypt until he died, has been awarded the VC". But the paper also told how his 33-year-old widow, Lily, and their two sons, George and Thomas, were living in near poverty in two modest rooms in a tenement in Duke Street, Newcastle.
