AGRICULTURAL worker George Strong will be honoured in a poignant ceremony near his unmarked grave in Sherston on Sunday almost 160 years since he became one of the first soldiers to be awarded the ultimate accolade for valour, the Victoria Cross.

Private Strong of 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards was just 19 when he saved the lives of many of his colleagues with a “conspicuous act of bravery” on the bloody battlefields of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.

In September 1855 he picked up a live shell which had fallen into the trench where he and fellow soldiers were on duty. Without hesitation he grabbed the explosive and hurled it over the parapet.

Strong’s citation says: “He was well aware of the extreme danger involved, and his action saved many lives.”

When the Victoria Cross was introduced Strong was among the first group of recipients and he personally received the medal – forged from the bronze of captured Russian cannon – from Queen Victoria during a ceremony in Hyde Park on June 26, 1857.

Strong was a Somerset lad who after the war married Wiltshire girl Eliza Dickenson and they settled in Sherston Magna, near Malmesbury.

He lived there for the rest of his life and after his death at 52 on August 24, 1885 he was buried in the churchyard of the Church of the Holy Cross in Sherston without a headstone.

Now former members of his historic Coldstream Guards regiment have produced a framed display board in honour of Private Strong’s unflinching courage which will be on permanent show at Sherston church.

The exact whereabouts of Strong’s remains are unknown. However, they are understood to be close to the grave of his son Thomas who died aged 70 in 1936, and a memorial was erected to the VC hero next to his son’s gravestone in 1986.

Chairman of the Bristol branch of the Coldstream Guards Association, Steve Hawkins said they were keen to honour Private’s Strong’s memory in a manner befitting a British Army hero.

They only recently became aware of his Sherston memorial after the association’s Bath branch, which had previously covered the North Wiltshire area, dissolved.

Mr Hawkins said: “I visited the memorial recently with a colleague, Ted Wollen. We laid a wreath there, but we thought it would be fitting to have something in addition to the memorial in recognition of George’s heroism, and to explain exactly what he did to earn his VC.”

They have created a glass display board featuring the only known photograph of George Strong - taken in later years - along with his citation and a photo of his medals which includes his coveted VC that is on display at The Coldstream Guards Regimental Headquarters in London.

Around a dozen members of the association – including 90 year-old Second World War veteran Edward Howe – will attend Sunday’s 9.30am service.

Sherston churchwarden Sue Robinson said they occasionally received visitors looking for Private Strong’s grave.

She said: “There’s a Victoria Cross association where members visit the graves of those who received the award.

“Unfortunately we don’t know exactly where he was buried. People have been buried in this churchyard for hundreds of years. By the time of the 1800s people were buried on top of each other.

“Only those who were well off could afford headstone right up until the late 19th Century.”

No church plan exists for the older part of the yard but when Strong’s son Thomas was buried there, it was believed to have been near the grave of his father.

This eventually led to a memorial being erected in honour of Private Strong after funds were made available nearly 30 years ago.