A commemorative paving stone to mark the award of the Victoria Cross to local hero Charles Sharpe during the Great War was laid at the War Memorial in South Street in 2015.

The date Saturday 9th May was chosen by the Department for Communities and Local Government to coincide with the centenary of his action in 1915 while serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment during the Battle of Aubers Ridge in France.

Memorial stones were presented to the home towns of all recipients of the Victoria Cross during the Great War as part of a government scheme to mark the centenary of the outbreak in 2014. The medal is Britain's highest military decoration for gallantry in the field and he was among the 633 members of the armed services who were so honoured.

The stones were intended to remember their bravery and to provide a lasting legacy of local heroes within communities to enable residents gain a greater understanding of how their town fitted into the story of World War 1.

There were fears that Charles Sharpe’s memorial stone would go to Sleaford which was originally named in the list published by the government in 2013 but after representations by local historian Rex Needle who provided proof of Sharpe’s long standing family and work connections with Bourne which he always regarded as his home town and spent much of his life here.

After discharge from the army, he worked on various jobs in Bourne including a spell as a labourer and cleaner at the BRM workshops and he also taught gardening and physical training at the Hereward Approved School in what is now Beech Avenue where the boys regarded him as a role model. He lived at No 68 Woodview and after a spell as a council refuse collector, his last job was as a gardener for the Bourne United Charities and, ironically, one of his duties was to tend the cenotaph and surrounds in the town's War Memorial gardens where the dead from two world wars are remembered.

As a result of this research, the leader of SKDC, Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), subsequently received a personal assurance from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, that the data base would be changed to reflect his home town as Bourne and arrangements went ahead for its installation.

Two locations were originally proposed, the War Memorial and the paved market area outside the new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange, but it was decided that the War Memorial would be the most appropriate place by virtue of its military connections and because Charles Sharpe tended it as part of his duties when working for Bourne United Charities after leaving the army.

The Corn Exchange site was suggested because it had a greater footfall than any other part of town but Bourne Town Council expressed the view that although it is a very busy place now, its future use was uncertain whereas the War Memorial had become a permanent feature of the town and likely to remain so.

The stone laying was held on Friday 8th May 2015, 100 years to the day that Sharpe was awarded his Victoria Cross with a short ceremony at the War Memorial led by the Vicar of Bourne, the Rev Christopher Atkinson, and attended by civic leaders, members of his family, trustees of Bourne United Charities who administer the War Memorial Gardens, and members of South Kesteven District Council and Bourne Town Council.

A blessing was said during the short service and the paving stone was unveiled on the top step of the War Memorial immediately in front of the stone cenotaph where wreaths made of red poppies were laid on either side from family members and regimental units with which Charles Sharpe had been associated.

The army was represented at the ceremony by Major David Falconer of the Lincolnshire Company, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, and Major Ed Matts of No 2 Company, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, 3rd Battalion, together with members of the Royal Anglian Regiment whose bugler sounded the Last Post before Ken Willows of the Lincolnshire Regimental Association read a homage to those who lost their lives in the war.

Among those who attended the unveiling was Charles Sharpe’s grandson, Richard Cooke, aged 63, a service engineer, from Werrington, Peterborough, and his granddaughter, Mrs Christine Green. “We were very pleased with the final decision for the location of the stone because of grandfather’s connections with the War Memorial Gardens”, he said. “This was where we hoped it would be placed because I also spent a lot of time with him there as a child and so it brings back many pleasant memories. It will be as though he has come home”.