A SOLDIER who carried an officer to safety amid heavy machine gun fire, then led a rescue party to him as German hand grenades exploded nearby, will be remembered at a ceremony for Victoria Cross recipients.

Members of the Durham Light Infantry's Faithful Inkerman Dinner Club will lay a wreath at the DLI Victoria Cross memorial on Sunday to mark Inkerman Day.

Joining them at the memorial, outside the Durham Light Infantry Museum and Durham Art Gallery, at Aykley Heads, Durham, will be infantry from Catterick Training Camp, in North Yorkshire, standard bearers from the DLI Association and the band and bugles of the Durham Army Cadet Force Borneo Band.

It is the fourth year that the public ceremony, which will start at 11am, has been held.

Each year, a citation is read for one of the DLI's 11 Victoria Cross winners.

This year, it is the turn of Private Thomas Kenny, a coal miner from Wingate who earned his VC on November 4, 1915, while serving with the 13th Battalion DLI in France.

The 32-year-old father-of-six was an observer to Lieutenant Philip Brown when he earned the honour after the officer was shot in both thighs while they were both lost in no man's land.

His entry in Stephen Shannon's book about DLI VC recipients, Beyond Praise, reads: "Thomas Kenny at once went to his aid and hoisted Lieutenant Brown onto his back.

"Immediately, heavy rifle fire opened up from the German lines, forcing Private Kenny to crawl through the mud, but he still kept his badly wounded officer on his back.

"This ordeal lasted for nearly an hour before Private Kenny -cold, wet and utterly exhausted, at last stumbled on a ditch he recognised."

He left Lt Brown there in search of his front line and, despite severe fatigue, volunteered to lead the rescue party to the fallen officer.

Lt Brown was recovered, but died while being carried back to the dressing station, but he was heard to say: "Well Kenny, you're a hero."

Pte Kenny was modest about his valour when he returned to County Durham.

He told an audience in his home village in March 1916: "All I can say is that I did my duty in France to the best of my ability."

After the war, he resumed his job as a miner and died in 1948 aged 66.

Inkerman Day commemorates the Battle of Inkerman, fought on November 5, 1854, during the Crimean War.

The ceremony will include a short service and music from the Borneo Band.