The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) last night announced it would spend £100,000 on restoring the graves of Victoria Cross recipients across the UK.

They include that of Sergeant Major Edward Brooks at Rose Hill cemetery, Oxford.

Sgt Maj Brooks earned his Victoria Cross by capturing a German machine gun and turning it on the enemy.

He was one of only two soldiers in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry to win a Victoria Cross in the First World War. His medal, now kept in a bank vault in Winchester, is worth about £150,000.