Jack Baskeyfield - VC

As the nights draw in, grim shadows take the places of what were once friendly landmarks. This forbidding shape is in fact a statue of Jack Baskeyfield VC, who died in action in World War Two.
The statue now stands at Hanley’s Festival Heights retail park.

There is some affection in the area for this young man, who came from here and who was only 24 when he died at the Battle of Arnhem in a last-ditch rearguard action.  A local school is named after him.
The fact that his body was never found shows how hopeless his situation was – and how brave he must have been to have kept on fighting.

Link: Baskeyfield VC