The Victoria Cross won by Adswood-born James Kirk a week before the Armistice goes under the hammer in London on 7 October, estimated at around £160,000.
The Victoria Cross awarded to James Kirk, a soldier born in Adswood and schooled in Cheadle Hulme and Stockport, is to be sold at auction in London next week.
Noonans Mayfair expects it to fetch “in the region of £160,000” at its sale of orders, decorations, medals and militaria on Wednesday 7 October. The auction house announced the sale on 24 September. It said the Cross is being sold “as part of an old collection of British medals”.
Kirk’s is the only one of the Victoria Crosses won in his final battle that is not held by a regimental museum, according to Noonans.
A week before the Armistice
Kirk was a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the 10th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, attached to the 2nd Battalion. He was killed on 4 November 1918 at the Battle of the Sambre, the last major battle of the First World War.
That morning, Royal Engineers were trying to bridge the Oise Canal north of the village of Ors. Kirk’s citation, quoted by Noonans, describes what he did to cover them:
- he took a Lewis gun and four magazines and paddled himself across the canal on a raft
- the raft was made of petrol tins and cork floats, and he crossed under “a most intense machine gun barrage”
- he set up the gun 10 yards from the enemy and fired off all his ammunition, then carried on when more was paddled over to him
- he was wounded in the arm and the face and kept firing until he was shot through the head
His actions enabled two platoons to cross the bridge before it was destroyed, the citation says.
Seven Victoria Crosses were awarded for the battle, and two of them were posthumous. Kirk is buried in Ors Communal Cemetery in France. The war poet Wilfred Owen, killed in the same action, lies in the same row.
His parents learned of his death on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918.
His Stockport roots
Noonans gives this account of Kirk’s early life:
- born at Willow Bank, Adswood, Cheadle Hulme, in January 1897
- educated at Miss Chadwick’s School in Cheadle Hulme and Brentnall Street School in Stockport
- played football for Seymour Old Boys’ Association
- later moved with his family to Droylsden and worked as a clerk at a Manchester warehouse
He served at Gallipoli before joining the Manchester Regiment. He was evacuated from there to Egypt with frostbite and spent six months in hospital in Cairo.
On 4 November 2018, exactly 100 years after the battle, a commemorative service was held at the Cheadle Hulme War Memorial. The then Deputy Mayor of Stockport unveiled a paving stone in his honour.
What is being sold
The lot is Kirk’s Victoria Cross and his three campaign medals from the war. The photographs Noonans released also show his memorial scroll, a letter signed by King George V, a letter from his division and a Manchester Regiment cap badge.
The sale takes place at Noonans’ saleroom at 16 Bolton Street, Mayfair.
What it means for you
- To see where he is remembered locally, his commemorative paving stone is at the Cheadle Hulme War Memorial, where the 2018 centenary service was held.
- If you want to follow the sale, it is the Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria auction on Wednesday 7 October. Noonans publishes results after each sale.
- Remembrance Sunday is on 8 November this year. Our guide to Remembrance services across Stockport has the times.
Source: Noonans Mayfair, “Noonans to sell an exceptional Victoria Cross that was awarded posthumously during the last major battle of the Great War”, 24 September 2026, including the text of Kirk’s citation and details from the auction house’s research.
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