Gallipoli charge VC could break auction record

A Victoria Cross awarded to the officer who led a bayonet charge under machine gun fire at Gallipoli - in what one observer described as "the bravest thing I ever saw" - is predicted to sell at a record price for a VC, next week in Australia.

The medal of Captain Alfred John Shout, the most decorated of Australian soldiers at Gallipoli, could fetch more than £300,000 by some estimates. Capt Shout, originally from New Zealand, survived the charge but died four months later in the assault on Turkish trenches at Lone Pine. It is the last VC held privately of the nine awarded to Australians at Gallipoli.