The heroism which earned a Bournemouth man a posthumous Victoria Cross is to be commemorated on the centenary of his death.

A commemorative stone will be laid near the War Memorial in the town’s Central Gardens in tribute to Corporal Cecil Reginald Noble.

The event takes place on Thursday, March 12, at 10.30am, in the presence of the mayor and the Lord Lieutenant.

The event is part of a national scheme to commemorate the recipients of the highest award for bravery in action.

Reginald Noble was fighting in the trenches of northern France in March 1915 when his unit was ordered to advance towards German lines, across land fortified with barbed wire.

Company Sergeant Harry Daniels realised the men stood no chance with the barbed wire to ensnare them as they made towards the German machine guns.

Rather than order any of his men to clear the wire, he decided to do so himself, and his friend Noble offered to go with him.

They managed to cut the wire but were both hit by German fire.

The British forces stormed through the gap in the wire and captured the German trench. Daniels and Noble lay all night waiting for rescue. Daniels survived but Noble died the next day.

Bournemouth council passed a resolution of high appreciation for Noble’s sacrifice. Each child at his former school, St Clement’s in Boscombe, paid a penny to put up a memorial tablet. Noble’s mother collected his VC from the King that November.

The corporal was buried at the Longuenesse Souvenire Cemetery in France.

He is commemorated in Bournemouth by Reginald Noble Court, a block of Royal British Legion flats in Surrey Road, and by Noble Close at Wallisdown – alongside Riggs Gardens, named for Bournemouth’s other native VC recipient, Frederick Riggs.

Both Riggs and Noble have blue plaques in their honour at Capstone Road, Malmesbury Park, to mark the coincidence that at one time they both lived in the same road – the Nobles at 175 and Riggs with his adopted family at 39.