Families meet over town's VC hero

Pte Fred Potts was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery Listen to his own words Portraits of the Great War survivors

The family of a Reading soldier awarded the Victoria Cross have met the relatives of the soldier he saved at Gallipoli in World War I for the first time.

Fred Potts, serving in Berkshire Yeomanry, dragged fellow soldier and townsman Arthur Andrews to safety on a shovel under heavy enemy fire in 1915.

Both men's families met at the Imperial War Museum, where Mr Potts' medal is displayed, as part of a documentary.

Reading MP Martin Salter has called for a memorial to be built to Pte Potts.

Pte Potts was a part-time soldier in the Berkshire Yeomanry, formed in 1794 following the declaration of war by France a year earlier.

In April 1915, the regiment sailed for Egypt and from there a few months later they were shipped to the Gallipoli peninsula where, against the Turks, they first saw action.

It was during a bloody battle on 21 August that Pte Potts earned the first yeomanry VC for "most conspicuous bravery in rescuing a comrade under heavy fire".

Shot in groin

On that fateful day he had been shot at in his left thigh - "the bullet had gone clean through".

Pte Andrews was gravely wounded after being shot in the groin but his fellow countryman dragged him for a staggering two days to safety.

Norah Andrews, Pte Andrews' daughter-in-law, said: "It is amazing that they [Pte Potts' family] lived so close and we did not know anything about them.

"I would not have had my lovely family if he had not been rescued."

Both families paid tribute to Pte Potts' bravery

Meanwhile, Ann Ames, granddaughter of Pte Potts, said of the meeting: "It is quite extraordinary [to meet Pte Andrews' family].

"My grandfather was very much a family man."

Berkshire Yeomanry Museum in Windsor houses a collection of letters and photographs which describe the soldiers' experiences.

Pte Potts, who attended Katesgrove Primary School, is commemorated for his heroics as one of their old boys on a plaque on a wall. He died in 1943.

In 1994 the 200th anniversary of the Yeomanry was marked by a massed parade of all surviving Yeomanry units in front of The Queen n Windsor Great Park.