A GROUP of school children remembered a war hero today (Thursday, June 19) by laying poppies at his grave.

Children from Trimdon Grange Primary School visited Wheatley Hill Heritage Centre, in Wheatley Hill, near Peterlee, County Durham, as part of a project.

While at the centre they took the opportunity to visit the grave of Thomas Kenny, in the cemetery nearby.

Heritage centre volunteers told the children about the home life Sgt Kenny is likely to have had as well as his heroic actions which won him the Victoria Cross. They were also shown a replica VC and a suitcase containing items Sgt Kenny might have packed when he went to war.

Sgt Kenny of South Wingate joined the 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry after war broke out.

On November 4, 1915 he was in the trenches near Armentieres, south of Ypres when an officer in charge of a patrol was shot through both thighs.

Sgt Kenny, although repeatedly fired on by the enemy, crawled about for more than an hour with his wounded officer on his back, trying to find his way through the fog to the British trenches.

He refused to leave the officer although told several times to do so, and at last, utterly exhausted, left him in a comparatively safe ditch and went for help. He found a rescue party and guided them to the wounded officer who was then brought to safety.

In peace, he returned to the coalface at Wingate Colliery, moving, in 1927, to be a stoneman at Wheatley Hill, where they named a drift in his honour.