PUPILS at St Matthew’s Primary School in Blackmoor have made a special piece of furniture in memory of the village’s First World War Victoria Cross hero, and former school headmaster, Tom Adlam.

The year-six pupils planned to take the remembrance chair they had made to their school-leaving service at Portsmouth Cathedral on Wednesday this week, as part of their work project for the event.

After returning, a hero, from the battlefields of the First World War, Mr Adlam became headteacher at St Matthew’s School.

Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 1893, Mr Adlam trained as a teacher before enlisting to fight.

He won his VC medal while serving as a second lieutenant with the 7th Bedfordshire Regiment at Thiepval in France.

On September 26, 1916, his regiment came under attack at what became the three-day Battle of Thiepval Ridge, part of the Battle of the Somme.

Orders were sent to capture a well-defended enemy area and, realising that time was all important, 22-year- old Mr Adlam rushed from shell hole to shell hole, under heavy fire, collecting men for a sudden rush to capture the village.

At this stage he was wounded in the leg but, despite this, he led the rush and the capturing of the German machine-gun dug out, during which the occupants were killed.

Throughout the day of September 26, Mr Adlam continued to lead his men in bombing attacks. And on the following day he displayed the courage of the highest order, which earned him the Victoria Cross.

Though again wounded, and unable to throw grenades - he had earned a reputation for his grenade throwing - he continued to lead his men.

He received his VC from King George V, on November 25, 1916, “for most conspicuous bravery during operations”.

He survived the 2014-2018 war, finishing with the rank of honorary captain.

In 1926 he became headteacher of the old Blackmoor Primary School; and he and his wife Ivy, also a teacher, made their home in the village with their four children.

Mr Adlam was recalled at the outbreak of the Second World War, serving as a staff captain in the Royal Engineers.

Demobbed in 1946, Mr Adlam returned to Blackmoor as headteacher of the primary school, but when the old school closed he started work at the Blackmoor Estate fruit farm until he retired in 1952.

The first Blackmoor school was at the now grade II-listed Victorian village hall. A fire in 1930 destroyed the roof of the building and in 1964, when the new school was built, in Drift Road, the Blackmoor Estate donated the old building to the village hall trustees.