Sheffield war hero honoured with re-naming of army training centre

The Manor Top Army Reserve Centre has been named Loosemore House after Victoria Cross and Distinguished Conduct Medal winner Sergeant Arnold Loosemore.

A ceremony last week was attended by members of his family and military VIPs.

Captain Mally Birket said: “Sgt Arnold Loosemore lived only three miles away from this location. He went to school not far from here and he joined the army in 1916 two miles away from here. We knew it would only be right and proper to remember one of Sheffield’s heroes, one of the finest soldiers from the city.”

Arnold Loosemore was born in Sharrow in 1896. He joined the York and Lancaster Regiment in 1915 and transferred to the 3rd and then the 8th Battalion the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment where he was involved in the battle of Gallipoli against the Turkish military.

From there he was transferred to Egypt and was deployed to Ypres in August 1917.

It was for his services in Ypres that he was awarded the Victoria Cross ‘for most conspicuous bravery and initiative during the attack on a strongly-held enemy position’.

The citation said he had ‘single-handedly dealt with a strong party of the enemy’. It continued: “Later, he shot several enemy snipers, exposing himself to heavy fire each time. On returning to the original post, he also brought back a wounded comrade under heavy fire at the risk of his life. He displayed throughout, an utter disregard of danger.”

Sgt Loosemore received the award from King George V in Jan 1918.

Grandson Kevin Loosemore said: “The regiment wanted him to stay in England, telling the soldiers how great it was out there to build up morale. But he wouldn’t because he’d got six brothers out there, his dad was out there, his friends were out there.”

He returned to the war and took part in a raid capturing 11 prisoners and a light machine gun position – for which he won his Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Kevin said at the ceremony: “We’re obviously very proud of what they’ve done with Loosemore House and even more proud of my grandad, his deeds in the First World War, what it’s meant to the family and every other brave person that this is the legacy of.”