1917 signed by Victoria Cross winner Private Tom Dresser

Title - Good Luck
 
Date - 27 Sept. 1917
 
Medium - Pen and Ink on paper
 
Signed - Pte (private) Tom Dresser VC    Yorkshire Reg
 
Picture size - 12.5cm x 15cm / 5" x 6"
 
Outside frame size - 24cm x 27cm / 9.5" x 10.75"
 
Condition - Excellent
 
Frame - Antique Victorian / Edwardian oak picture frame with period glass
 
Tom Dresser was 24 years old and a Private in the 7th Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment (the Green Howards) when he won his VC on 12th May, 1917 during the Battle of Arras in Northern France.
The Green Howards had won a strategically important trench but were desperately short of ammunition, with the whole operation in danger of collapse if they weren't quickly resupplied. A volunteer was called for to get word back to Battalion Headquarters.
Private Dresser stepped forward and set off, crawling across no-man's land under heavy machine gun fire. Despite being shot twice and seriously wounded he continued on with his critical mission and successfully made it back to HQ.
On July 21st 1917, with his arm still in a sling, as shown in one of the photo's, he was awarded his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace for 'conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty'.
At the War's end he returned to the family newsagent's business in Middlesbrough which he ran for the next 40 years, showing his medal to customers that he kept in a tobacco tin behind the shop's counter.
He lived to the ripe old age of 91 and passed away on April 9th 1982.
A wonderful piece with a beautifully drawn lucky black cat and good luck inscription dated only two months after the award of his VC by the King at Buckingham Palace.