AN historical research group is offering people the opportunity to see the Belgian battlefield where a Worcestershire man won the Victoria Cross, Britain’s most coveted award for bravery.

Fred Dancox launched a single-handed attack on a German blockhouse at Poelcappelle, near Ypres, nearly a century ago in the autumn of 1917.

Risking almost certain death, he coolly walked into the fortification clutching a grenade, and not only captured the 40 German occupants, but also their machine gun as well.

This incredible act of valour took place during the battle for Passchendaele, one of the bloodiest campaigns of the First World War. Thousands of men were killed and wounded as the British tried to push back the German lines around the village of that name.

Frederick George Dancox was born in Barbourne, Worcester, in 1879. Educated at St Stephen’s School in the city, he worked as a hay trusser and lived with his wife and four children at 12 Court, Dolday, one of the poorest parts of Worcester.

Before being sent to the Ypres Salient, he had served in Gallipoli and the Somme with the 4th Worcestershires.

For many years, he was hailed as Worcester’s first VC winner. But this was incorrect, as that honour belonged to George Wyatt, who won his cross in 1914.

Tragically, although his home street was decked out with flags and bunting ready for his homecoming, Dancox never returned to Worcester. He was killed in action just before going on leave.

Fred Dancox has no known grave but his name is recorded on the Cambrai Memorial at Louverval.

This November, Battlefield Memorial Tours will be taking a party to visit the infamous battlefield where Fred Dancox won his VC and also to attend the annual Armistice service held at the Menin Gate, Ypres.

The trip will run from Friday, November 10 to Sunday, November 12, and relatives will also have the opportunity of going on pre-arranged visits to the graves of loved ones.

Battlefield Memorial Tours is the successor organisation to a research group founded by the late Alex Bulloch in 1972. Mr Bulloch, a former Birmingham policeman, was instrumental in taking many thousands of Midlands people to the graves of relatives.

For more information, contact tour organiser Brian Long on 01629 650780 or visit www.battlefieldmemorialtours.co.uk

JOHN PHILPOTT