3531119 Corporal Kenneth Horsfield was awarded the George Cross in March 1945 for the acts of gallantry which led to his death in Brindisi the previous year, thus giving Hyde its fifteen minutes of fame. Thanks to a campaign by local journalist Mike Pavasovic, Tameside has seen fit to place a blue plaque on one of the houses in Hyde in which its local hero is thought to have lived. His mothers' house in Brook Street was demolished by the 1960s and the house in which he was born in George Street must have gone at about the same time. It is currently proposed, current owners permitting, to put the plaque on 27 Croft Street, his grandfather's house where he is thought to have lived briefly in the 1920s. The unveiling of the plaque is currently scheduled for week commencing 23rd February.
For information about Kenneth (work in progress) see
http://sites.google.com/site/kennethhorsfieldgc/ and
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/horsfield.steve/KennethHorsfield# the original documents have been deposited with Tameside archives in Ashton
He doesn't appear to have spent much time in the Manchesters. At the time of his death he was in the SAS, but I believe he was really involved in a succession of SOE postings. This led ultimately to his death in ME 54, which was a parachute container packing factory for SOE drops to irregulars behind enemy lines, hence the Yugoslavs at his funeral.
